Interns
by mikkiemakkie
Summary: Sequel to Ward has Secrets. If you haven't read that there may be some ideas in this story that you may not understand! Enjoy! Started out as Ward/Skye but hints of Coulson/May seem to be cropping up!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: If you are joining me from my Ward has Secrets story, then the answers are as follows. Fury and Coulson talked about Skye and Ward and the acceptance of a relationship. The coin toss was to identify who would, if needed, get beaten up on the mission!**

**If you haven't read that then there may be some situations that you may not understand in this...**

**Well, enough of my rambling. Here's Interns.**

Skye was sat reading her emails smiling. Even though she hadn't seen him since Tahiti they still emailed. Fury had sent him to Phys Acc for a year to recover from their last mission. She was looking at his most recent email to her. It was a picture. He had broken into the principal's office at Phys Acc and was sitting in the principal's chair, behind his desk. She knew he had broken in because it was dark outside the window.

"Heard from lover boy recently?" Simmons asked her, breaking her out of here revere.

"Yeah. He sent me this earlier" She replied, showing SImmons the picture Ward had sent her.

"Did you hear about the principle?"

"No. What happened?"

"When he found out he would have both blue eyes and peaches there for a year, he had a heart attack!"

"No way."

"Well, they thought it was a heart attack, turned out to be a serious panic attack."

"I can imagine Ward and Nat causing him to have one, but not peaches."

"Rumours are they are just as bad."

"I doubt it. Peaches seemed so calm. So serious."

"Then who's holding the camera in that photo?"

Skye looked at the photo that Ward had sent her again. She could quite clearly see those big blue eyes she loved so much. She zoomed in and showed it to Simmons.

"No one was holding the camera!"

"I miss him" Simmons said sitting down next to Skye. The previous nine months had been so dull without him.

* * *

"We're going to Phys Acc" Coulson told them all that night.

That got everyone's attention. Phys Acc. Maybe, just maybe, Fury was letting Ward come home early.

"What are we doing there?" Skye asked, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.

"Won't know until we land" Coulson answered with a smile.

* * *

Coulson came out of the principal's office and came to rejoin his team.

"Is twinkle toes coming home" Simmons asked him hopefully. Skye was too busy holding her breath to ask him herself.

"No. It seems like Fury is going to keep him here for the full year." Skye let her breath out in disappointment.

"So why were we called here?"

"We're getting Interns" Coulson told them. He was clearly not happy with it.

His team simply stared at him in disbelief.


	2. Chapter 2

"There are a number of bunks available. When we had the 'bus 'remodified' we had more added. Pick and empty one and unpack you stuff" Coulson told the two agents-in-training (AIT's).

The female agent walked over to a bunk to unpack her stuff, but Skye got there before her and blocked the door.

"Not this one. It's taken" She told her.

"It's empty"

"It's taken. Go try that one" Skye repeated and nodded to one on the opposite side of the 'bus.

When the AIT's had claimed an empty bunk they went back to the lounge and tried to introduce themselves.

"I'm Amber" The girl said, waving at the team.

"I'm Kain" The boy said, unzipping the top of his navy blue, standard issue Phys Acc suit.

"I'm Jemma Simmons but everyone just calls me Simmons."

"I'm Fitz."

Skye was in her own world. She had just received and email from Ward. It said:

_Hey beautiful,_

_I saw you at Phys Acc today. I wanted to come and say hi, but Fury wants me to keep a low profile and keep out of trouble. Not to mention I was trying to outrun arrows flying at my head! I miss you everyday I'm here and I cannot wait to come home. _

_I love you._

_Stay safe._

_Blue Eyes xx_

_P.S: Have fun with the interns :p_

"That's Skye" Simmons said pointing to the back of her head. Skye gave them a backhanded wave and started replying to Ward's email.

_Hey,_

_I'm kinda glad I didn't see you. It would have made it so much more difficult to leave. How did you know we had interns and why were there arrows flying at your head?_

_I miss you so much. I am counting down the days till you're home._

_I did stop one of those interns from taking your bunk :p_

_I love you too._

_Skye x_

"Cruising at 50,000 feet." May said entering the lounge.

"That's May" Simmons pointed out.

"She transferred from administration" Skye told them, taking on board what Ward had told her to do.

She caught May's eye and winked. May knew exactly what Skye was planning.

"Where are we headed May?" Simmons asked.

"Wherever the plane wants to take us"

The looks on Amber and Kain's faces were one of uttermost horror!

* * *

"So what do we do. They are horrible people." Fitz asked as he, Simmons, Skye and May congregated in the Lab.

"Actually, they're pretty standard to come out of Phys Acc." May pointed out

"Emotionless Robotrons?" Skye added questioningly.

"Ward isn't an emotionless Robotron and he came out of Phys Acc" Simmons said.

"He was, until we kinda forced him into feeling things" Skye told her.

"Oh yeah!"

"That still doesn't make the next few months bearable"

"Well they think May came from admin and that the plane has no pilot, so that's a start."

"We could let slip that Skye used to be Rising Tide before she became a S.H.I.E.L.D agent." Simmons suggested.

"Even better. We leave out the used to be"

"Perfect. Coulson?"

"He won't allow the lies"

"I don't know, you guys lied to me all the time when I first came on board. Like May taking out 200 people with _one _gun."

"This is a direct order from Fury. It's different.

"If only Ward was here." Skye finished gloomily.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the middle of the night and Skye was sat, trying to type an email to Ward. She hadn't got past the greeting of 'Hey!' when Amber came out of her bunk for a drink of water.

She saw Skye typing at her laptop.

"That isn't S.H.I.E.L.D issue" she remarked.

"No, it's mine."

"Personal electrical items are not allowed on the 'bus. I read it in the safety pamphlet." The snottish Amber recited. What she didn't realise was that Fitz-Simmons had altered the safety pamphlet to wind the AIT's up

"Well boo who for you!" Skye said before closing her laptop and going back to bed.

After half an hour of tossing and turning she went to sleep in Ward's bed.

* * *

The following morning May landed the plane in the remotest regions of Alaska. The team disembarked and filled up their supply packs. They were headed up the mountain to check on reports of massive destruction.

The AIT's were storming off up ahead, followed by May and then Fitz-Simmons and Coulson. Skye was lagging behind.

Coulson noticed this and dropped back to talk to her.

"You ok?" He asked her.

"Yeah. Fine"

"So why are you lagging?"

"Not been sleeping very well recently."

"Missing him?"

"Always!"

"He'll be back before you know it!" He told the young, junior agent, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. Skye smiled at him and, even though she had very little energy, she picked up her speed.

When they got to the top of the craggy rock face they could see why they had been called. Craters the size of houses had appeared almost overnight, but they were smooth and seamless, so they had obviously not been dug by hand. The local shepherd had spotted them and called the national forestry service, and in turn they had called the NSA, who had called S.H.I.E.L.D.

Fitz and Simmons got to work. They got the Dwarves out of their case and started taking measurements. They also took mineral samples, air samples, soil samples, electrical discharge readings and radiation levels. Skye was busy tapping away at her computer, sorting through the data the Dwarves were collecting. The AIT's were wondering around, a little helpless, not entirely sure what to do. May was stood talking to Coulson about possible causes of such a phenomenon.

Then the shots rang out. Coulson and May pulled their weapons out of their holsters, Amber and Kain froze and Fitz and Simmons packed the Dwarves away and headed over to Skye, who was behind the protection of Coulson.

"Anyone got eyes on the shooter?" Coulson asked.

"No." Was the cry from everyone.

Coulson and May had identified the direction from which the shots came from and as Coulson gave her cover fire, May crept out of the smooth basin and around to the spot where the gunman was. By the time she got to the location he was gone.

"Everyone back to the 'bus" Couslon ordered.

Nervously at first, the group made their way back down the mountain side to the plane.

When they were in the comfort of their own space Fitz, Simmons and Skye set to analysing the limited date they had collected. What they found scared them as much as the bullets flying.

"We found very high levels of electromagnetic energy in the pit" Simmons told Coulson when he came to check in.

"What sort of electromagnetic energy?" Coulson asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"The type the Covenant used last year with their weapon." Skye confirmed.

"That's not good news"

"No. The levels of energy we are seeing is 10 times stronger than what we saw last year." Simmons confirmed.

"Erm... Guys. What's the Covenant?"


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey!_

_I got your email. Are things really that bad with the Interns?_

_Fury told me you guys are coming to Phys Acc again next week. Hopefully I get to see you this time, and no, we did not give the principal a heart attack. There's still time though!_

_I spoke to Coulson yesterday. He told me you're not sleeping very well. If it helps, I left one of my shirts on the 'bus. Try looking in the bottom drawer of my bunk._

_Keep your chin up, and maybe have a game of poker._

_Love you,_

_Grant xx_

May, Fitz, Simmons and Skye were having another secret meeting in the lab discussing the latest torment they could bestow upon Amber and Kain.

"I got an email from Ward. He suggested we play Poker."

"Do you think he knows?" Fitz asked Skye, remembering the time Skye had tried to help Fitz cheat playing poker with Ward. She had been wearing 'special' glasses that allowed her to see more than just Ward's cards.

"I haven't told him" She replied.

"So poker!" Fitz turned the conversation back to the point.

"They are talented liars or they wouldn't be top of their class." May pointed out.

"So we use the glasses" Skye told them, nodding to Fitz.

"It's going to take all of us. They might get suspicious if one person keeps winning."

"Skye can man the glasses" Simmons suggested.

"It gives credence to her being Rising Tide if she claims to be working in her bunk" Fitz agreed.

"Wednesday night is Poker night?" Skye asked

"It's only Monday" Fitz said, slightly disappointed.

"I have an idea on what we could do before then."

* * *

"I want you to make me feel, like I'm the only girl in the world" Amber sang putting her head under the torrent of water coming out of the shower head. She heard the door open and someone walk over to the showers. She heard the shower in the next cubicle turn on. Suddenly the curtain of her shower was pulled back and Fitz was stood there, wearing nothing but a towel.

"Do you have any shower gel? I seem to have run out!" He said to her.

* * *

Skye looked around the lounge to check that Kain was there. He was sat reading 'How to Kill a Mockingbird'. She walked up to Simmons who was sat talking to May.

"Simmons, I have this thing in my neck. Would you take a look?" She sat on the floor in front of Simmons, who sat with her legs either side of Skye's body. Skye pulled her top off and Simmons put her hands on her neck. She started slowly and methodically pummelling and beating the tension out of Skye's neck while May feigned going to the cockpit to check their flight plan, and while passing Kain she dropped something and when she had got his attention, she bent over to pick it up. Without making eye contact she moved off, leaving Kain with a full view of Simmons and Skye.

"I'm just going to go and... Bye" He said dropping his book and sprinting to the toilets.

The three girls were in fits of laughter.

* * *

"How are the interns working out?" Fury asked Coulson via the video feed in his office.

"They seem a little nervous. Froze a little in their first gun fight."

"Expected. They have never been shot at by enemies before."

"AAAARRRRGHHHHH!" Amber screamed.

"Coulson? What was that?"

"I don't know Sir. I will go and find out"

Coulson hung up and went to locate the source of the screaming. He passed the three girls in the lounge, they had clearly found something funny because they were all laughing. He narrowed the scream down to the shower room. He saw Amber, still soaking wet and covered in a towel run out of the door up the stairs and towards her bunk. He poked his head in the door to see Fitz getting in the shower.

"What did you do?"

"Asked her for some shower gel." Fitz replied innocently.


	5. Chapter 5

"Where are we headed" Skye asked Coulson, as she felt the plane turning.

"We're headed to back to Egypt. Fitz-Simmons have tracked another signal to the tomb of Tutankhamun of all places."

"What do we expect to find there?"

"If it is the Covenant I expect to find nothing. Like always."

"What is the point in going then?" Kain asked confused.

"We need to confirm that this is indeed a Covenant attack. It will help us trace them."

"I've been tracking their hideout. Nothing. Seems like after Black Widow and Blue Eyes broke in they have shut up shop."

"Makes sense. Their base is vulnerable. Why stay there? They probably think if those two can get in then anyone can."

"You had someone raid one of their bases?" Amber asked impressed.

"Yeah. Getting in wasn't an issue, well much of one. Getting them out though. Things got slightly messy." Skye told her, knowing there was an opportunity to wind them both up.

"They died. Then we remotely rebooted their hearts. Hack of a lifetime by the way." She continued

"Remotely rebooted their hearts?" Kain asked disbelieving.

"All agents above level, what level is it again Coulson, seven?" She turned to Coulson for an approval nod which he gave before continuing "have a microchip implanted into their cardiac muscle. They work the dangerous stuff and they are most likely to turn traitor so the chip monitors their location, which in turn monitors their loyalty. We hacked the chip, made it short circuit which electrified the agent's hearts into beating again."

"I have one" Coulson added, to give support to Skye's wind up.

"No way." Amber added, still not sure whether Skye was winding her up or not. Coulson opened his shirt a little to show the AIT's the scar he received from Loki's septre. He didn't tell them that though.

"There's the scar from the implant." He told them before covering his chest. Amber and Kain went into the workout room to spar, still discussing this genius and sneaky way of monitoring agents.

"That was evil" Coulson told Skye.

"If they are stupid enough to believe it"

"What else do they believe?" He asked her

"What makes you think they believe anything else?" She asked him, in a very unconvincing tone.

"Because you have spent too much time with Ward and May."

"The plane flies itself and that May is from Admin. The same stuff I was told when I came on board." Skye admitted.

"And Fitz and the shower?" Skye looked to the floor while Coulson smiled.

"Just don't let it get out of hand" He advised her.

"We're two hours out. Why don't you go and grab a nap" he added, noticing that she looked very tired.

* * *

When they landed at the tomb they were greeted with a familiar sight. Multiple, smooth, deep crater holes. Only this time it was minus the gunfire.

They looked around and quickly found the entrance to the tomb. It was open, which struck them as odd. Having been trapped in a pyramid with Ward for most of the day last year May took a step back. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

"Everyone back to the 'bus. If we are going to explore that tomb we need to prepare." Coulson ordered them, also remembering the pyramid incident of the previous year.

Amber and Kain weren't listening. They were very, very interested in the tomb entrance. They stepped into it as they heard everyone shout "NO!"

The door slammed shut behind them.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Amber asked Kain. She sounded scared.

"The door closed behind us"

"Really? Is that what just happened?" She was starting to get hysterical. She felt her way for Kain in the dark, because of course neither of them had a torch. She found him and held onto him tightly. She wasn't afraid of the dark but she had never been trapped in an ancient tomb before. Field work really wasn't what she was expecting. So far she had been shot at and now she was going to die in here with Kain.

Kain was managing to remain in control. He started feeling around for the door release. When he couldn't find one he sunk to the floor still holding the now weeping Amber.

"It'll be ok" He told her "if they can bring agents back to life from miles away they can figure out how to get us out of here."

"What if they can't?"

Kain, who had been drawing patterns in the dirt floor with his finger brushed up against something cool and solid. When he picked it up it turned out to be a human hand.

"They'll find us" he repeated, a note of panic rising in his cool voice.

* * *

Outside, the team were looking over the walls for any hieroglyphs or patterns that didn't belong. Unlike the pyramid at Giza, the surface of the tomb was perfectly smooth. They all looked at each other horrified. Skye ran to van where she had left her laptop and began flying her fingers over the keyboard. After Ward and May had nearly died last year she became fascinated with Egyptian history, especially the construction of the pyramids. It turns out that there are architects who specialised in 'trap systems', such as concealed doors and false floors. These were primarily used to deter grave robbers of Ancient Egypt's tombs. She madly researched the way in through the door, using every method she knew.

As it turns out, the door was fairly easy to open. It involved stepping on the right sequence of 'activation' stones outside the tomb. Anyone watching the team could have believed that there was a pit of molten lava underneath them with the way they were jumping from stone to stone. They made it to the door and it opened. They shone their flashlights into the open space behind the door and saw nothing but a couple of skeletons and the two AIT's huddled up in a corner.

They all filed into the gap behind the door, with the exception of May, who elected to stay out and reopen the door if she needed to. They took their torches, gave Amber and Kain some water and wandered down the corridor. They made it all the way into the vault that held the body of Tutankhamun without finding anything that could have caused the craters outside. They did find a lot of interesting artefacts that had not seen the light of day in many thousands of years. They were not architects, nor were they grave robbers so they left these priceless items exactly where they lay. Fitz-Simmons did take photographs to show May and Ward when they got out of there.


	6. Chapter 6

On the way back the exploration party missed a turning and ended up in a high ceilinged room with a flat sheath of water in front of them.

"A False floor" Skye informed them.

"A what?"

"There is only one way to get over that. Underneath the water there is a path." Kain went over and was about to put his foot down on the water when he heard Skye continue.

"Not all of it is covered, there is one path, and unless you have the original architect's specs you can bet we won't find it."

"What do you think will be in the water?"

"If the research I've done is right, it could be anything from boiling acid to flesh eating bacteria."

"Let's turn around and go back then." Fitz recommended.

* * *

May made herself comfortable in the sunshine. If they decided to explore the tomb then she would have an hour or so to herself with her thoughts. She was over the fact that Ward and Skye were together and was actually starting to warm up to her. What scared her most was a brief feeling she had experienced a few months ago. Something she hadn't felt for a long time. As she lay pondering this, the door closed. She positioned herself at the base of the stairway to the tomb and was about to start jumping the mechanism to open it when she felt a gun trained on her. She spun around and came face to face with rebels.

They forced her to her knees and held a gun to the back of head, execution style. They were asking her what she was doing there. There was just one problem. May didn't speak Arabic. She tried telling them in the languages she knew, English, French, Italian, even poor Russian, that she didn't understand them.

There was a loud bang and the man holding the gun to May's head collapsed to the floor in a heap.

* * *

"I swear this isn't the way we came in" Amber complained. They had been wandering around in circles for hours.

"We shouldn't have left May out there. She would have got us out of here by now!" Fitz moaned.

"I see light!" Simmons exclaimed hoping that it was their door. They made it to the source of light. It wasn't their door but a hole in the ceiling.

"A priest hole I expect" Skye told them. They all looked at her like she was talking in gibberish. "The Ancient Egyptians usually left secret entrances to tombs for priests to come and go as they pleased to tend to the tombs and make the necessary sacrifices to their gods, I expect it would be Anubis in a tomb like this, to look after the dead in the afterlife." She told them.

"So this leads outside to the cliff edge?"

"I expect so" Skye replied.

Coulson took the chance to get out of there. It was becoming unbearably hot. No wonder May didn't want to repeat the experience. He climbed out of the hole and was about to help Simmons up when he saw it.

May had been captured. There was an executioner stood behind her about to pull the trigger. Coulson was quicker. He saw May react to the shot and she took the opportunity to release the hidden ninja within. By the time Coulson had helped everyone out of the hole the rebels were all on the floor, nursing different injuries.

Together they tied the rebels up and Coulson, who spoke broken Arabic started questioning them.

He found out that they weren't rebels at all, but a small group who dedicated their lives to protecting the history of their country. Coulson showed them his badge and introduced his team, while untying them.

It was getting late and instead of the length journey back to the 'bus the team decided to light a fire and get something to eat. They invited the Egyptian Historical Guard (EHG) to join them. All they had were camping food packets. It was food that had been dried and placed into sealed sachets that you then had to place in boiling water to cook and eat. This was the first meal the members of the EHG had eaten in days, so they were more than receptive of the invitation.

During the meal, Coulson managed to learn that a black SUV with tinted windows arrived just after nightfall the previous day, unloaded, what Coulson understood as 'giant ray gun' and fired it into the sky from the door of the tomb. As the EHG had approached, the group, deciding that whatever they had done hadn't worked, packed up and left. After they had gone there was a bright flash of light from the sky and it hit the ground in the spot where the craters were. The EHG told Coulson that they felt the ground was going to open up and swallow them because they had let strangers desecrate the tomb of their beloved boy king.

With this new information the team, having left some food packets for the EHG as a thank you for their help, were travelling back to the 'bus in a pretty sombre mood. They now knew exactly what had caused the craters, but what the Covenant were trying to achieve shooting electromagnetic pulses into the sky like that was worrying them.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hey!_

_It's poker night tonight. We have it all planned. The interns won't know what's hit them. Amber has been boasting about being Phys Acc's champion. She clearly hasn't met May's icy stare yet._

_Thanks for the shirt. I found it – it was under the bed. Still not sleeping too good though. I miss you every day._

_Keep your nose clean._

_I love you._

_Skye xx_

"Everybody know the signs and tells"

"Sure."

"Skye. You ready?"

"I'm ready. Are these things on?" She asked, turning to Fitz.

"Hang on." Fitz flipped a switch "They are now"

"Let's do this!"

The four of them entered the lounge with the mat, chips and cards. Skye was also carrying her laptop.

"It's poker night. You guys want in?" Simmons asked Amber and Kain.

"Sounds good" Amber replied, knowing that she had nothing to fear. She was Phys Acc's poker champion.

"I'm in." Kain agreed.

"I have some work to do" Skye announced headed to her bunk.

"She is a little wierd" Amber mentioned. "Never wants to socialise, always at her computer. What's up with that?"

"She's still adjusting. We picked her up a little while ago. Caught her hacking into our computers". May informed them, which was true. She just left off the part about becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

"And you trust her?"

"Let's play" Fitz said from the table him and Simmons had been setting up. They had chosen seats that would allow Skye to view the AIT's cards in full without being able to see everybody's everything.

"She has a high straight, he has a full house" Skye told them.

"Fold"

"Fold"

"Raise you ten"

They had been playing for an hour and a half. May was currently winning and Amber couldn't stand it. Kain was just about holding his own.

Amber grinned devilishly. "I'll see your ten and raise you 50!"

"Call" Kain said

May flashed her cards to Skye. Straight flush.

"Kitten, I think it's time to kill the birds"

"All in" May said pushing all of her chips into the middle of the table, forcing Amber and Kain to do the same if they wanted to stay in.

"Call"

"Call"

"Show 'em" May said.

Amber turned her cards over, smiling in a very satisfied manner; high straight. Kain did the same. Ambers smile faltered when she had realised that Kain had beaten her.

"At least I lost to him and not any of these idiots" she thought.

Then May flipped her cards. It took both Amber and Kain a moment to realise they had lost. May scooped up all of the chips and started stacking them.

"I'm going to call it a night." Simmons said standing up to leave.

"I need to check something in the Lab" Fitz informed them, following suit.

Realising the codes they had chosen which signified the end of the game, May scooped up the winnings and left the table after Fitz-Simmons. Skye pulled up an old rising tide communication on her laptop and altered the date and time to that precise moment. Leaving it up she encrypted the rest of her computer and carried it back out into the lounge.

"Game over?" She asked the two AIT's, who were still sat at the table, stunned to have lost in the manner they did.

"We lost" Amber croaked, disbelievingly.

"You haven't played with Ward yet. He can get you naked faster playing poker than taking you to bed." She told them for good measure. Leaving her laptop on the bar she went down the stairs to the Lab where the others were waiting. May was splitting the winnings four ways. They decided when they came up with this plan that it would be the best way to do it as it was a team effort.

Amber stared after Skye, determined that if she ever came across Grant Ward that she would have to play strip poker with him. She was pretty enough to distract men after all. She would just have to seduce him. It was definitely a difficult life! She suddenly noticed Skye's laptop. It had a new mail indicator flashing on the desktop. Hitting Kain she nodded in the direction of the bar. Keeping an eye out for Skye's return they read the email. It said this:

_Congratulations,_

_You have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Now gain their trust._

_Rising Tide-member 00293_

"She's rising tide?" Amber asked, shocked.

"No way. Coulson would never let her have half of the access she has if she was."

"Then what's this email about?"

"I don't know. But don't you think it's a little suspicious that she has a personal computer and is 'working' away while we're all having down time?"

"A little. Maybe she just likes her job."

"I caught her working on the computer the other night. When she saw me she closed it and pretended to go to bed."

"I'll get close to her to find out"

* * *

Coulson was watching this with mild interest. His agents deserved a little fun and the AIT's were clearly not as bright as their results indicated!

Coulson pressed the buzzer of the 'bus' intercom.

"Bed time."

He usually didn't tell them when to go to bed. After all they were all adults, but tomorrow was a big day.


	8. Chapter 8

"Ok Guys! You know what day it is!" Coulson told them down the intercom system, waking his team up. They all awoke with a start.

As they congregated in the lounge for breakfast Coulson could see that Skye was excited, Fitz and Simmons were apprehensive and May looked like she wanted to punch someone. Amber and Kain were confused.

They landed at Phys Acc before dawn and crept in through the back doors. After all, the guards weren't to know who they were working against.

"Amber, Kain. You two need to wait in the atrium. You aren't part of this." Coulson told them.

They went to the atrium and waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, they saw a very attractive male agent storm into the atrium. They knew who he was. His face was all over the Academy. He was shouting at someone. They recognised her too. Her face was also all over the Academy.

He turned to face her.

"He was my best friend. I can't believe you slept with my best friend!" He was shouting at her.

"It was an accident." She pleaded.

"An accident. You accidentally slipped and fell naked into my bed with him?"

Amber zoned out of their argument for a moment.

"So they were a couple. It sounds like this is it for them. Too bad. He's gorgeous! It might make getting him naked easier." She thought. She was brought out of her daydream by the male agent pulling a gun on the female one. He aimed it right between her eyes. Every security person working in the Atrium pointed their gun at him. He put his hands in the air, dropping the gun at the same time.

"You know what. It's not even worth it. We're done!" He said to her before stalking off out of a door. She huffed and stormed out of another one.

Amber stood smiling. She now stood a very good chance.

* * *

Coulson led Fitz, Simmons, May and Skye into the white room, and then into mission control. The first thing they saw was Ward, Romanov and Hawkeye laughing together near one of the computer panels with Director Fury stood to one side assessing his agents..

"Welcome to Open Day" Coulson told them.

"Everyone take a seat." Fury told them.

"They game is simple. You catch the flag, get it to the top of the Colosseum and hit the buzzer. There will be armed opposition, chinks in the system, and all of your clearances have been revoked as of five minutes ago.

I know it's a larger team than last year, but I want you to make it interesting for our potential recruits. So make it count."

"Assignments as follows: Ward, Hawkeye, Romanov, Skye and May. You guys are running tactical. Fitz and Simmons. You two are here guiding them to the finish. Gear up!" Coulson informed them.

Once they had changed into S.H.I.E.L.D tactical gear they were given half an hour to formulate a plan. They had decided that Ward and Romanov were going to provide a distraction and that May would be the one to grab the flag. Hawkeye and Skye were to provide back up.

"What sort of distraction do you think we should create?" Romanov asked the group at large.

"How fast can you both get into those suits?" Hawkeye asked.

"With a little help from friends? 60 seconds, give or take" Ward told him.

"Here's the plan. You both remove your suits, go into the lobby having a lovers tiff, scream at each other for a little bit, catch everyone's attention, then when May has the flag you go your separate ways. Me and Skye will be waiting with your TAC gear and help you into it. We hit the rendezvous and go from there together." Hawkeye suggested.

Ward and Romanov looked at each other before saying:

"Sounds like fun!"

The tour group entered the room to Ward/Skye and Hawkeye/Romanov practising their speed tactical gear-up. They removed it all and were dressed in 'normal' clothes. All five agents headed to the door.

"Once you leave this room the mission is a go" Fury announced.

One by one they left.

* * *

Skye headed straight for the door where she was to meet Ward and Hawkeye headed for the one he was to meet Romanov.

"In position" Skye whispered into her microphone,

"Me too" Hawkeye confirmed.

"May?"

"I'm in position. Go, go, go."

Ward burst through the door. He felt that the argument he and Romanov were having was convincing enough. It had peaked all of the guards' interest at least, but it still didn't distract them. So he grabbed a gun from the holster of the nearest guard and held it at Romanov's head.

"Target Acquired" May told them through their ear pieces. Ward threw the gun aside, shouted a finale and stormed off. Romanov waited a couple of seconds before doing the same.

Ward made it through the door where he saw Skye waiting patiently for him in the shadows. As he put on his S.H.I.E.L.D shirt, she was fastening his leg holsters on; while he was fastening his belt around his waist she was zipping his shirt up; as she connected one leg holster to his belt, he was doing the other. Just like they practised. It only took 45 seconds.

"Geared up, heading to rendezvous"

"Same here" he heard Romanov reply.

Ward and Skye ran down corridor, after corridor, after corridor. Suddenly they hit a dead end. Usually it wasn't but this must have been one of Fury's 'chinks in the system'.

"Not this way" Ward said as he turned around, turning Skye around with him.

"Ward, stop. Multiple bogies headed your way" He heard Simmons tell him.

"Where? How many?"

"Twelve. End of the corridor you're in"

"I see them." He replied peering around the corner.

One by one they entered the corridor that Ward and Skye were in. One by one Ward and Skye (mainly Ward) took them out, until the last one. He stood in the corridor junction with his gun trained on Ward. He suddenly hit the ground with a neuro-toxin arrow replacement sticking out of his hand. Hawkeye and Romanov had caught up with them.

As a group they made it to rendezvous point 'b' to meet May. When they got to her, she was being pinned into a gap in the wall by gunfire. Ward and Romanov had a quick game of 'rock, paper, scissors" to decide who was going to go in. They both chose rock, looked at each other and Ward threw three flash bang pellets towards their armed assailants.

Together they ran into the corridor to incapacitate the guards, while Hawkeye picked off the runners with arrows.

All five made it into the Arena. They were stood on a balcony thirty feet in the air, their target, the other side of the room.


	9. Chapter 9

They looked for a way across to the Colosseum. Romanov noticed hand holds coming from the ceiling, while Ward noticed small, evenly spaced circles covering the floor.

"Laser grid?" Skye asked, remembering the previous year.

"No. It changes every year. This year I think its landmines."

"Mines? That explains the hand holds."

To check their theory, Ward disconnected a bullet from his mag and threw it over the balcony edge. It hit a circle the electrical charge in the mine exploded and the bullet was set off. The five of them took a step back from the ledge.

Hawkeye saw a cable on the top of the smooth ledge of the Colosseum.

"Right, here's what we do. I'll go across with Nat and fire the cable across for May, Skye and Ward. Nat can help while I provide cover fire to keep anyone getting in."

"Sounds good to me!" Skye responded, relieved to know she wouldn't have to use the hand holds.

She watched as Romanov and Hawkeye made light work of the maze of bars. They were soon across the room and firing the cable into the wall nearby. Romanov pulled it tight and fastened it round a pole. May slid across it first, as she was carrying the flag, then Skye leaving Ward, who had the best chance of defending himself.

While Skye was on the cable it slipped from the fastening. Hawkeye, Romanov and May all jumped on it to stop Skye falling to the ground. It was in that split second that three guards made it through the door, finding Ward alone on the balcony.

Two rushed at him, one used a machete type knife to cut the cable before joining the others. But, Ward being Ward, threw two of them off the balcony to the ground with a couple of loud bangs, as the electrical mines exploded, and incapacitating them. The other, he managed to dislodge the machete from his hands and throw him out into the corridor, using the machete to secure the door. He looked across at the others and knew there was only one thing for him to do to get to them. The hand rails.

"It's a good job my back is better" He thought as he sailed through the air from bar to bar. He was soon on the top of the ledge with the others.

"Let's climb." He told them.

"This is the first time I've made it to the top" Hawkeye told them when they got to the top and May reached into her pocket for the flag to connect it to the cargo net.

"Me too" She admitted

"I've never tried before" Skye pointed out. May handed one side of the flag to Ward and the other to Romanov.

"Why don't the three of you press the buzzer then" Ward suggested. After all, he and Romanov did this nearly every year. So Hawkeye, Skye and May climbed to the buzzer. Hawkeye put his hand over it, Skye put her hand on his, and May covered Skye's hand with hers, before pushing them all onto the big red button.

The siren sounded throughout the building.

* * *

Amber and Kain were stood talking to some of the people in their class who were curious to know what life was like on the 'bus. The siren made them all jump.

"The flag! When the hell did that go?" They heard one of the guards shout.

* * *

Romanov, Hawkeye and May had all connected the decent cable to their belts and taken the jump off the top of the Colosseum. Skye, who had never done anything like this was panicking a little.

"What if I just climb down" She asked Ward scared.

"Then the others would take the piss out of you for the rest of you career."

"Really?"

"And this is the first step in learning to parachute"

"So you're telling me I have to jump."

"Yeah."

"Oh God."

"Let's turn this off" he said, turning her microphone and video feed off. "They don't need to hear you scream."

He held his hand out for her to take for comfort as they jumped. She took it.

On the ground Hawkeye, Romanov and May were taking bets on whether Skye would jump or not.

"She won't jump. She's only a baby" Hawkeye said.

"She's not jumped before" May pointed out

"I thought you crashed the 'bus"

"We were all still on it. She's not going to jump." May concluded.

"I think she will. I think you both fail to realise how persuasive Ward can be, especially to women" Romanov countered. Just as she finished, Ward and Skye jumped off the top of the Colosseum.

* * *

Amber and Kain were still in the Atrium when the cheers went up. They looked to see Ward, Romanov, Skye, May and an agent they didn't recognise all entering the atrium in full TAC gear.

They saw Director Fury enter the Atrium from the opposite side of the Atrium.

"Agent's front and centre!" he shouted. All five agents lined up, to attention, in front of him.

"I told you to make it interesting!" he continued to shout, as he paced in front of them, eyeing each one of them up.

"Eight and half minutes is _not_ interesting!" He stopped in front of Skye.

"I do not want to see your hands there again" He told her. He had seen her hands perilously close to Ward's personal equipment. She looked at the floor and blushed

He stopped in front of May, "Next time, use the bars."

He continued to Romanov and Ward.

"Rock, paper, scissors." He said to them shaking his head in disbelief. He knew they were insane, it's what made them so good, but this? The two agents looked at each other with a half smile.

"Rock, paper, scissors. Seriously?" he said to them again before stopping in front of Hawkeye.

"Barton, You're fit for active duty." Was all he could say.

"Dismissed. Ward, with me"

Skye saw Ward follow Fury out of the Atrium. He turned to her and gave her a devious, yet seductive smile.

Unfortunately they would not be able to spend any time together as Coulson needed them all back on the 'bus.


	10. Chapter 10

The plane was flying to the most recent incident. It was in Papua New Guinea. This meant a long flight. They were told to have some downtime on the trip so they chose to put a movie on. Between all of them they chose a horror movie. Saw IV was what they had access to so they put it on and settled into the sofa watching the movie being played up against one of the partitioning windows.

Coulson looked up from the data he was analysing to see all of them asleep. Skye had her head on May's shoulder, Simmons and Fitz were curled up together and Amber had her head back, snoring. Kain had his legs over the end.

They had dimmed the light for the movie, but Coulson suddenly saw movement.

Skye had woken with a start. She was shaky and covered in cold sweat. She looked around her, saw everyone asleep and got up to get a drink. After narrowing it down she chose a scotch, neat. Ward had given her some last year to help her get over the shock of his death. She knew, even though she didn't really like the taste of it, it would help stop the shaking.

"Skye?" Simmons asked softly from behind her. She had sensed Skye getting up and knew something was wrong. She had noticed Skye hadn't being sleeping. There were bags appearing under her eyes.

"Hey Simmons! What's up?" Skye asked keeping her voice low so she wouldn't wake the others.

"You ok? You look like hell?"

"I'm fine."

"That's why you're drinking a neat scotch." Simmons pointed out, raising her eyebrows at Skye "And we know you haven't been sleeping, even wearing one of Ward's shirts."

Skye, feeling so worn down by how she was feeling let a single, solitary tear fall down her face. She hadn't told anyone, not even Ward.

"Everytime I close my eyes I go back to that night." She admitted.

"You keep seeing him die?"

Skye nodded, more tears threatening to escape. She took a large sip of her scotch. Instead of laughing at her Simmons told her:

"I have the same issue. Not to the same extent, or for the same reasons but after a hard day I see him and Nat die."

Skye poured Simmons a scotch and the two girls sat drinking, holding each other's hands for comfort.

* * *

"I don't think you understand Director" Coulson said to Fury over the video link

"I do understand. You want me to send you Ward so you can put him back in the hospital."

"Sir, Ward, if you believe it or not, is an integral part of this team. His absence for so long is affecting morale, especially with those interns you sent me."

"Grant Ward is not fit for active service. End of discussion Coulson. The answer is no."

"Sir, what about plane arrest?"

* * *

They landed in Papua New Guinea. There was more devastation than the other sites they had visited. They were stood in the smouldering wreckage of a burning village. Fitz let the Dwarves out of their case to do their thing while the others were looking for signs of life. They found nothing.

"Coulson, by your left hand. What is that? Nosey is picking something up!" Fitz told him excitedly.

Coulson snapped on a pair of latex gloves and sifted through the debris where Fitz had indicated. He found what looked like a small baby, except it wasn't human. It was severely deformed and had a three foot tail. He put it in a bag for Fitz-Simmons to assess later. Other than that they found nothing, like usual.

* * *

Back in the Lab Fitz-Simmons started to process the thing that Coulson had found. They could see Skye working out in the workout room. She was getting quite good. Especially seen as though she had temporarily lost her SO. The more they dug into the object the more convinced it wasn't human. As it was burned beyond recognition they couldn't tell what colour it was, but they did manage to see that it had thick, bright pink blood.

Kain came into the Lab and headed for the workout room. As he passed the table he managed to knock a small pointed weapon off the table. It landed in the floor with a thwack and a small, spinning blue object floated into the air. Fitz-Simmons saw it and ducked, screaming at Skye to do the same. By the time Skye realised what had happened the device had detonated, blowing her into the side of the workout room, knocking her unconscious. Kain was blasted into the punchbag and escaped relatively unhurt.

Hearing the cries and the bang Coulson and May burst into the Lab. They saw the shattered glass, Kain getting to his feet like he had drunk too much and Skye laying face down on the floor, not moving. Coulson picked her up and carried her to the medical suite. Over the last few months Fury had developed and redeveloped the medical suite from a single bed to multiple beds and state of the art equipment. He reasoned that the room he gave them after the crash still wouldn't cope with the number of injuries this team acquired.

Coulson went back into the Lab to find out what happened.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault. I knocked that _thing_ off." Kain admitted. He had never seen the weapon he had detonated and only had a vague recollection of knocking it off. He was more concerned in getting to know Skye.

"It's an air compression device." Fitz told him. "It sucks the air in and then sends it back out in a powerful wave, blasting anything like people out of the way.

"Shatters glass too" Amber said impressed.

It was then that Coulson and Simmons noticed the purple ooze covering the walls of the lab

"ORSINO" they said together, looking at each other.


	11. Chapter 11

They spent a few days longer that they would have covering the crater site. Once they realised they had found a creature that was strong and repulsive they wanted to cover all of their bases. On a night they had been staying in a hotel on the northern coast of Australia and flying back to the scene on a morning. Simmons had declared Skye fit enough to join them after a couple of days in the med suite.

* * *

Skye was just drifting off to sleep in her room when she heard a slight beep. It sounded like the lock to her door, so she turned to look. She saw the handle dip, so she raced out of bed to get her gun. Fury, upon making Skye an agent had handed her it and told her to use it well. She pointed it to the door. It opened wide and someone walked in. Someone tall, dark and completely gorgeous.

Once she recognised Ward she dropped her gun and ran to him. He picked her up in his arms and kissed her for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Hey!" He said to her, smiling.

"Hi." Was all she could say, before tears of joy ran down her cheek.

Ward wiped them off with his thumb and walked her over to the bed, where he put her down and dropped his bag.

"I have missed you so much" He told her, brushing her hair behind her ear. "But it's been a really long flight and I want to shower."

He pulled Skye's hand as an indicator to go with him. She did. When they got to the bathroom door he turned and pulled her into a deep kiss. His hands slid under her top and pushed it up. She put her arms above her head to let him take it off her, before doing the same to him. He pulled her into the bathroom and set the shower going. Waiting for it to warm up Ward pulled her closer and started an assault on her neck. He kissed her from her ear, all the way down to her collarbone, grazed her with his teeth and then soothed it with his tongue. He could feel her going weak at the knees.

* * *

There was a soft knock at the door. Skye looked at the clock: 6.30am. She groaned as she got up, wrapped her naked body in the sheets and went to answer it.

"Kain. What're you doing here?"

"Coulson wanted me to let everyone know that breakfast is in 30 minutes" He told her, eyeing up the bedsheets and tousled hair.

"Ok. I'll be down soon." She told him.

* * *

Half an hour later everyone but Skye was sat at a table eating breakfast.

"Where's Skye?" Simmons asked.

"You did wake her?" Coulson asked Kain.

"Yeah I did, but if you ask me she was having much more fun in her hotel room!"

May and Simmons looked at each other. It wasn't like Skye, who was madly in love with Ward, to pick up a strange guy and take him to bed.

"Why do you say that?" Simmons asked trying, and failing to be casual about it.

"When she answered the door she was wearing the sheets off her bed and she had sex hair."

"Sex hair?" Fitz mouthed to Coulson.

Worried, May and Simmons abandoned their breakfast and went in search of Skye. Coulson smiled, knowing exactly what they would find. The girls reached Skye's room and knocked.

"Skye. You're missing breakfast"

"I'm not that hungry"

"Skye, who is it?" they heard a male voice say.

Looking at the guilty, sheepish look on Skye's face May and Simmons barged past her into the room. When they saw Ward sat on the edge of the bed putting his socks on they couldn't contain their happiness. They both ran to him, arms outstretched. The momentum sent all three of them backwards in to the bed, which Simmons promptly fell off spraining her ankle.

* * *

"We're gaining another body" Coulson announced to Fitz, Kain and Amber as they prepared to check out.

"No. Coulson. We don't want an extra body." Fitz groaned.

"I'll just go back to Phys Acc then" Ward said behind him, making him jump. Fitz spun to see Ward, who had piggybacked Simmons down the stairs; Skye and May.

"Look who we found wandering the corridors" Skye announced, while Ward gave her a sideways look.

"Simmons, what happened?" Coulson asked when Ward deposited her onto a nearby chair.

"He jumped out on me and I fell down a couple of stairs. I'm fine. Just a little sore!"


	12. Chapter 12

"Rules" Coulson was telling Ward "Do not break these or you will be back at Phys Acc faster than the 'bus can get you there."

"Hit me!"

"No sex on the bus. I don't mind you and Skye sharing a bed, in fact it might help her sleep better, but we live on a plane and the walls are very thin."

"Ok. Next"

"You and an old friend are going to get reacquainted" Coulson told his tossing him a silver bracelet. "You can attach that yourself or I can attach it for you, which would be the harder way"

"Limitations?" Ward asked.

"The 'bus, plane arrest until the Director tells me otherwise."

"Anything else?"

"Take it easy on the interns."

* * *

The atmosphere on the bus had changed considerably. There was more noise and laughter, which is what Coulson liked to hear. Skye was now sleeping through the night without having nightmares about Ward dying and Simmons also had fewer occurrences of her team dying in her dreams. Granted, the mischief level had also increased. Amber had come running out of the kitchen screaming that a knife had been following her around the room. A quick glance at the colour of Ward's eyes told Coulson everything he needed to know. Kain had woken up to a face full of toothpaste. You also had to be careful opening doors as the AIT's had found out the hard way.

Ward and Skye had been working out in the workout room. He was using his 'special skills' to throw a load of knives at her that she needed to defend herself against. When Amber and Kain entered the room all of the knives that were airborne went flying at them, some went through the vacant panels that previously held glass, but Fitz-Simmons, having seen what Ward was up to was alert enough to duck the knives coming straight at them. Skye and Ward could do nothing but laugh.

Kain and Amber still hadn't forgotten their concerns regarding Skye. Although she wasn't on the laptop as much, they were still suspicious that she was working for the Rising Tide. They suspected Ward may have figured it out when he came on board, but he was as clueless as the rest of them.

Amber still hadn't forgotten her personal agenda of pursuing Ward either. Wednesday night was poker night, she hadn't forgotten!

Skye was on her own in the workout room, which now that Ward was back on board was unusual. Kain saw her and, being careful not to knock any weapons off in the Lab, went to join her. He saw her punching the bag. Her technique was flawless. He walked up behind her and put his hands on her hips. The gesture made her jump. She knew it wasn't Ward. He was getting a shower. She spun to find Kain entering her personal space and she felt decidedly uncomfortable.

"Your technique is flawed." He told her, knowing it was the opposite, not knowing that Ward had taught her.

"There is nothing wrong with my technique. What do you want?" She asked, icily backing up a little.

He stepped closer to her, almost pinning her up against the wall and started trying to seduce her. She punched him and he backed up.

"I'm seeing someone" Skye told him, leaving the workout room.

* * *

"What happened?" Amber asked Kain as he entered the lounge, blood pouring from his nose.

"I tried to get information out of Skye by seducing her. She punched me."

"She is definitely hiding something."

* * *

Later that day Ward was doing his mandatory rehabilitation exercise. He was fine but Fury insisted and one word of rebellion on the 'bus would see him back at Phys Acc. Skye and May were talking with Simmons and watching Ward at the same time. He was doing some manoeuvre that not even May had seen before.

"I can't believe Kain hit on me!" Skye was telling them. Since that drunken night in the hotel room they had become friends.

"I can. Why wouldn't he?"

"I punched him in the nose."

"Did he bleed?"

"Yes."

"Good girl!"

"That is kind of hot!" Amber said as she walked into the Lab and noticing the others watching Ward and commented on his exercise. They just looked at her.

"He's seeing someone" Simmons told her.

"That's way over. Did you not hear what happened at Phys Acc?"

"No, what?" Skye asked, knowing exactly what Amber was on about.

"They had this massive fight. He pulled a gun on her and everything."

"No way!" Simmons prompted this highly inaccurate gossip.

"Yeah. Apparently she slept with his best friend. I wonder why she did that. I mean, there could be something wrong with his manhood for all we know."

Skye opened her mouth to retort, but May, realising they could have some fun with this put her hand on Skye's arm to silence her.

"Have you ever heard of diversionary tactics?" She asked Amber.

"Well yeah. We've learned about them at Phys Acc. You use them to draw the attention away from where the attention needs to be."

"And what happened when they we're arguing?"

"The flag disappeared." She said, the realisation of the argument being faked hitting her.

May got up from the Lab table and leant in closer to Ambers face.

"And there is nothing wrong with Grant Ward's manhood" She said before standing upright, winking at Skye and Simmons and leaving.

Amber stared after her.


	13. Chapter 13

"Amber has her eye on you, you know" Simmons told Ward as they were working together in the Lab. The rest of the team were in the field at another crater site. Simmons elected to remain on the 'bus because her ankle was still weak.

"So that explains all the flirting she's been attempting."

"Yeah. I take it she's not very good at it?"

"What was it Skye called me last year? Bambi on ice?"

Simmons laughed.

"Does she know about me and Skye?"

"I doubt it. At the moment she doesn't know whether you're seeing Nat or sleeping with May. Kain has been hitting on Skye too."

"I bet that went well and why does she think I'm with Nat or May?"

"Skye punched him. Made his nose bleed. You should be proud!"

"I taught her well! Now the other side of it."

Simmons walked around the table and felt a painful twinge in her ankle. Ward could not ignore the gasp of pain from her mouth.

"On the table" he told her swiping the data away with his hand to clear it. He helped her onto the table and removed her shoe. He started moving her ankle to try and figure out what she had done to it and how to rectify it.

"Well all those rumours are still floating around Phys Acc about you and Nat, and your argument was very convincing to everyone by the way. Ahhh."

"Sorry!" Ward apologized.

"And Amber was watching you work out the other day when you were doing that rehab stuff, which by the way, I didn't think you would do, and she questioned your manhood. Ow! Please stop doing that."

"I'm trying to figure out what you've done. And keep going."

"Well, May put her in her place. Basically told her that the argument was fixed and that there was nothing wrong with you and your... you know" Simmons trailed off embarrassed.

"Remind me to thank her later. I can help with that ankle."

"Really? I didn't think you had much of a medical background"

"I don't, but I've had my fair share of torn ligaments."

They agreed on a basic training schedule to help Simmons ankle get better and started working on tracking the Covenant again. Unfortunately there were no inverted pentagrams evident in their attacks this time.

"This is useless!" Simmons exclaimed, frustrated.

"Tell me about it. Maybe you need a break?"

"No. It'll come to me."

"Simmons, take a break. You'll fry that brain of yours. Then we'll be in trouble!"

Looking at Ward and his 'charming smile' she caved and they went to the Lounge to play chess. Each move took a lifetime to take, purely because they were talking about previous tortures they had bestowed upon the interns and what tortures they could in future. They were discussing how to set Amber up playing poker when the team returned.

"Well?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Skye, why are you wet?" Ward asked, noticing Skye was soaking wet from head to toe and starting to shiver

"I got pushed in the lake. I'm going to go shower." She answered through chattering teeth. As she headed towards the shower Ward went to her bunk. Even though they were sharing the single bed within his she kept all of her clothes in here still. He picked up some clean dry clothes and a towel and followed her. When he got to the shower room Sky was in a heap on the floor.

"Skye?"

She looked up at his voice. He saw the hurt in her eyes and went to sit next to her, putting his arms around her. She put her head into his chest and cried. When she had stopped crying Ward got to his feet and removed his shirt. He reached into the shower and turned it on. He helped her remove the wet clothes she was still wearing and he got into the shower pulling her in too.

"So what happened?" he asked her.

"Kain, he's been hitting on me all week. I've told him I'm seeing someone and he still won't leave me alone."

"He was the one who pushed you into the lake?"

"Yeah. I think it was payback for punching him in the nose."

"I heard about that. I'm proud of you by the way!"

Skye smiled and rested her forehead on his chest.

* * *

They re-entered the lounge an hour later. Amber immediately noticed they were holding hands and her heart broke. So the others weren't joking when they said he was seeing someone. Coulson noticed Ward also had wet hair and nodded at him that he wanted a word. He let go of Skye's hand and followed Coulson to his office.

"Ward, you know what I am going to say, but before I do I would like to give you a chance to explain. I don't want to have to send you back to Phys Acc."

"We didn't have sex."

"But you showered together."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Kain has been hitting on Skye for a couple of weeks. She told him she was with someone, when she punched him he took the option to retaliate and pushed her into that lake. When I went to give her a towel and some clothes I found her crying on the floor."

"So you picked her up and comforted her and helped her clean up?"

"Exaclty."

Coulson could never tell if Ward was lying to him, but his gut instinct told him Ward was telling him the truth, and if he was the interns had crossed the line.

"Well in that case." Coulson hesitated before continuing "It's time to 'introduce' them to the family"

Ward understood that to mean 'step up the hazing a gear.


	14. Chapter 14

"Poker night! Who's in" Skye shouted down the bus when Ward was setting up the table.

Everyone wanted to play. Ward and Simmons had concocted a plan and had let the others in on it. After what he Kain did to Skye they felt he deserved a lesson.

They played for an hour without incident when Ward got up to grab a drink.

"Have you noticed his tell?" Skye asked May.

"You mean scratching his forehead?"

"Yeah. How did we not see this before."

Amber and Kain, who had plotted together so they wouldn't lose this time, were listening intently. They hadn't noticed Ward's tell, but made a note to watch out for it.

As the game progressed, Ward made some bad hands, using his tell every time. He was down to his last chip.

"I see your 10 and raise you," he looked through his pockets to find absolutely nothing, "My shirt" he said, taking it off and placing it on the table. Within minutes the chips lay forgotten. It had turned into full blown strip poker.

Half an hour passed and Ward was down to his jeans and one sock.

"All in" He said rubbing his forehead (they had agreed that you only had to remove the item if you lost the hand, it saved putting the clothes back on just to remove them again!) "AND I raise you a streak down the bus."

Amber and Kain, who were winning at this point noticed his tell and went all in plus the streak. Kain showed them his cards, two pair, 5's and 8's. Amber revealed her cards: Full house, 4's over 8's. She was happy she beat Kain but then her face dropped.

"You two better get naked" Ward told them as he flipped over his cards. He also had a full house, but he had 10's over 9's. He beat Amber's hand.

"But your tell..." She started spluttering

"Ward doesn't have a tell" Fitz told her.

"You made it up?"

"Not exactly. We thought he was having a rough day!"

The team made the interns strip and, while they held their clothes Amber and Kain did a naked run of the bus.

* * *

Ward was alone in the workout room. He was waiting for Skye. They had arranged a training session. While he was waiting for her he was punching the bag in the corner. Amber noticed this and went in to talk to him.

"That was cruel you know."

"What was?"

"Last night at the Poker game."

"Was it?" He stopped punching and turned to face her. "If you didn't brag about how good you are and that you're the academies champion we might have gone a little easier on you." He started punching the bag again.

"What are you saying?"

"You may be 'all that' at the academy, but if you haven't noticed this is real life, not training and you are not all that. There are things you will go through in the field that training will not and cannot teach you."

"Like what?" She scoffed at him.

"That isn't for me to teach you."

"No, that's for you to teach Skye. Who, I'm pretty sure, is a Rising Tide agent sent to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D and you have all fallen for it hook line and sinker. Hell you're even sleeping with her." Amber nearly screamed at him, her pent up jealousy flowing free. She didn't realise she had crossed a line.

"Listen to me very carefully." Ward told her in his best icy voice and pausing his workout to look at her again. "What is between me and Skye is between me and Skye. That is none of your business, and as for the other thing. What makes you think I don't already know?"

"What?"

He saw Skye outside watching this interaction.

"There's the door." He told Amber. "Don't let it hit you on the way out!"

Skye went in as Amber left.

"What was all that about?" She asked Ward, seeing the tell tale signs that he was irritated. It was one emotion he struggled to hide.

"She's convinced that you are still Rising Tide."

"What did you tell her?"

"That I know you are." He said with an evil grin.


	15. Chapter 15

"What am I supposed to here alone?" Ward asked Coulson as the team prepared to investigate another crater.

"Make dinner?" Coulson suggested and they headed off leaving Ward on the 'bus alone.

* * *

At the scene, they found what they expected to. Absolutely nothing. Skye and Coulson had set off up to the top of the crater to get a better view. When they got there they were taken by surprise. There were thirty guns pointed directly at them.

May could see Coulson from the bottom of the crater and she saw him put his hands in the air. That was not good. She hissed at the others to hide in the shadows. She didn't want to just leave Coulson and Skye, but she didn't know what they were dealing with up there, and she had the others to protect. All five of them stood watching as Coulson and Skye were bound and dragged off to waiting vehicles. When the coast was clear May brought the others out of their hiding places.

"What just happened?" Simmons asked confused.

"Coulson and Skye were taken. I don't know if they were rebels or worse" May told them. They made their way back to the van and May was torn between following them or taking everyone back to base.

"Can you track them?" She asked Fitz.

"If we know where to start, which we do. So, yes. I think we can track them."

They headed back to the 'bus. Ward met them in the Lab. He noticed that Coulson and Skye were missing.

"Where are they?" he asked

May took him into the workout room, knowing that the news was better coming from her.

"They were taken. We don't know by whom, but we will find them."

He punched the bag so hard it split his knuckle. Fitz and Simmons were busy trying to log into S.H.I.E.L.D's satellites. May was tending to Ward's hand. Amber and Kain were sat in the Lab doing nothing, the realisation that they would be needed to go into whatever building Coulson and Skye were being held in suddenly dawned on the two AIT's. Amber suddenly knew what Ward meant when he said training didn't prepare you.

"We have the feed." Fitz said.

"Track it." Ward told them. They tracked it for three hours to an abandoned village on the outskirts of a giant, glassy lake.

"The Covenant" Ward said, recognising the signs.

"If we set off in the next half hour then we should arrive by nightfall." May told them.

"We're gonna have to break some rules" Ward told them.

"Who's we?" Kain asked, nervously.

Ward looked at May who nodded back.

"We'll go in." She told them. They had people they both cared about in trouble. They were not going to leave their lives in the hands of two interns.

"You two, one who can't leave the bus and one who transferred from administration." Amber scoffed.

Ward held turned to Fitz and handed his wrist to him. He immediately started trying to hack through the bracelet's defences. May got changed into her tactical gear. Simmons was helping Ward into his seen as though he currently only had one hand available.

"It's going to take more time than we've got" Fitz told Ward.

"Just be as quick as you can!" He told him.

It took Fitz 45 minutes to get to the last stage of hacking the bracelet. To save some time May had flown the 'bus a little closer to the location they had tracked the Covenant to.

"The second I disconnect this thing the night-night is going to inject into your blood stream" He told Ward. Ward looked around for something to put between his skin and the bracelet. He found a piece of metal that had been curved. It was clearly part of a prototype of some description. Ward wedged it between the bracelet and Fitz started the last phase. The bracelet came off with a _hiss._

"Fitz, I want you in the cockpit ready to get this thing in the air at a moment's notice."

"On it."

"Simmons. You ok to run comms on this?"

"Yes" She replied, hesitantly

"If you're not I can stay" May told her looking at Ward.

"No. I can do this. You two go get them back"

Ward and May set off in the Van towards the village holding their friends.

* * *

"Director Fury!" Agent Hill shouted, at their base in the hub. "Ward's bracelet has been deactivated"

"Goddamn it Coulson! Get me a link to their communications. NOW!" he demanded.

* * *

Ward and May had crept up to the building that they saw Coulson and Skye taken into. They waited outside the door.

"Blue eyes and Cavalry in position. Waiting for a go/no go"

"No go. What the hell do you think you two are doing?" they heard Fury ask them.

"We're about to infiltrate a Covenant hideout"

"Stand down blue-eyes. Immediately"

"I would, Sir, but unless you can get a TAC team here in the next five minutes we're going in."

"They have Skye and Coulson" May told Fury.

"Hold your positions" he told them.

* * *

Back in the hub, Fury looked at Hill.

"He's passed every evaluation you have given him in the last six months. Even the bizarre and ridiculous ones." She told Fury, "and our nearest TAC team is seven hours away."

"Blue Eyes. Mission is a go. I repeat mission is a go." He said down the microphone.

"Patch me into their video surveillance. And their heart monitors."

"Heart monitors, Sir?"

"Oh never mind. Just get me into their feed."

* * *

Ward and May blew the door. They weren't too bothered about entering covertly; they just needed to get Coulson and Skye out. Fitz and Simmons had not wanted them to go in blind, so they sent them with the dwarves and very quickly taught Ward how to use Them. While May was keeping guard he sent the dwarves off to locate humans. He soon found the room where Skye and Coulson were being held. They were tied to the ceiling using the same double hand hangman's knots. He packed up the dwarves and he and May set off for the room.

"Ward? May?" Coulson asked as they entered the door.

"We couldn't just leave you both hanging" was Ward's reply.

"But the bracelet?"

"What bracelet?" ward responded with a grin.

While May watched the door Ward cut Coulson and Skye from their binds. Ward couldn't reach so he used his telekinetic ability to move the knife and cut them down. They managed to get to the corridor leaving the building. Then they heard something that made their blood run cold. A deep cold male voice. One they had heard the previous year.

"Agent Ward. Welcome back!"


	16. Chapter 16

"Hell no!" Fury exclaimed, recognising the voice as the man who had beaten Ward the previous year.

Back on the 'bus Fitz and Simmons both paled, also recognising the voice.

* * *

The four agents turned to look at the man with the voice. Ward stepped forward.

"Congratulations you know my name!"

"Yes. That isn't all I know about you, or Agent Romanov. Where is she by the way?"

"Busy."

A small squadron of Covenant members surrounded the team.

"I have something I would like to show you Agent Ward. If you would like to follow me?" Ward didn't want to follow but with a rifle tip to the back of the head he didn't really have a choice.

Their hands were tied behind their backs and they were taken to a small room with a large monitor covering the entire of one wall. On the video feed they saw someone running. A young woman, with long brown hair tied up into a neat ponytail. Ward and Skye recognised her instantly. Tilly.

"I want my weapon back or, what's her name? Matilda? She pays us a visit until we get it back."

"I don't have it" Ward told him.

"Go get her" Deep voice said into the microphone.

They saw the camera move closer to Tilly. All anyone could do was watch what was about to unfold, including Director Fury.

"Excuse me, Miss."

Tilly stopped running and removed one of her earphones.

"Can I help you?"

"Agent Danson of S.H.I.E.L.D"

"ID?"

The pretend agent showed her forged ID. Tilly still didn't seem to relax.

"What can I do for you?"

"We have received a threat on your life. We would like to take you into protective custody."

"I need to speak to him."

"Certainly."

Deep voice's phone rang.

"Tell her that it's ok" he raised a gun at Skye "or she dies."

Deep voice answered the phone and passed it to Ward.

"Tilly. It's me. S.H.I.E.L.D protocol 987. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

The room watched as Tilly crossed the park with her fake guard. In the middle she seemed to stop and tie her shoelace. Then all hell broke loose. The group in the room, Fitz, Simmons, Amber and Kain on the 'bus and Director Fury at the Hub saw Tilly use expert martial arts skills to take out three of her five escorts. They could see one creeping up behind her with a syringe of what they assumed to be sedative. She used a move that they had seen Romanov use many times before. She grabbed his hand and twisted it the wrong direction. She then used her other hand to deliver a blow to his stomach. For good measure she injected him with the syringe, before shooting the last one. Once all of her escorts were on the floor she ran.

When she started fighting Deep Voice actually lowered his gun and stared at the screen. Clearly he had underestimated this girl. He pointed his gun at Ward. Ward simply stood there laughing. Deep voice hadn't realised that they had all escaped their bonds, or that May had crept into the shadows. She shot deep voice in the back and between her and Ward they eliminated the rest of the guards in the room. Coulson was keeping Skye safe. She might have progressed in martial arts training but she still wasn't up to this level.

"Right. Let's get out of here." Ward said as the last guard fell.

* * *

Back on the 'bus Amber and Kain were sat watching the feed with their mouths open. They had never seen May or Ward fight. They were amazing, far better than they were. They understood why there were Legends about Ward and why no one had even come close to his scores and times. As for May, they were now pretty sure that everyone was having them on when they told them she was from Administration.

* * *

"Who is closest to Moscow?" Fury demanded

"Romanov, Sir."

"Get me onto the 'bus now"

* * *

The team made it back to the bus without further incident. The second the cargo door closed Fitz took to the air. May went to join him. Ward was managing to remain calm.

"S.H.I.E.L.D protocol 987?" Coulson asked him, having never heard of such a protocol.

"There are, well were, only four people who know about it. Fury installed it as an escape mechanism in case someone went after her. We had a passport, money and hair dye in a safe. If we told Tilly to follow that protocol she was to raid the safe and head for Moscow."

The communications line suddenly went live.

"Director." Coulson answered.

"Coulson, welcome back. Is Ward there?"

"I'm here."

"Romanov is closest. She's in Cheboksary. It's a nine hour drive, hour and 15 by plane."

"Does she know?"

"We are trying to reach her but she's in the field."

"If you don't mind, Sir. I would like to do it."

"I'm coming to you. We need to talk."

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

Ward dialled the emergency number for Romanov. A man answered in Russian.

"Put her on" Ward replied also in Russian.

"No."

"I will come to that building and kill you and all of your men if you don't put the girl on right now." Ward told him simply.

As none of the others spoke Russian they had no idea what he said to him. He hit the loudspeaker button.

"Hello?" A woman said is Russian.

"Nat?" Ward transferred to English.

"Ward? I can't talk. I'm working"

"I realised that when gumbo answered your phone. Put me on hold, we need to talk."

"Fine, hold on. It better be worth it.

They heard a lot of crashing and grunts of pain. Suddenly the line became clear again.

"So talk." She said.

"S.H.I.E.L.D protocol 987." Was all Ward said to her. The line went quiet.

"How much of a head start does she have?"

"About five hours. You're the closest agent we have. Flight is an hour and 15. You're booked on the next one in two hours. We have a stop to make before we can meet you. Rendezvous at Phys Acc."

"Copy that." Then she hung up.


	17. Chapter 17

Ward went into the workout room and began punching. He quickly split the cut on his hand that May had stitched earlier. He had planned on spending the entire flight in the workout room. That plan was foiled when he hit himself around the back of the head with a spanner. He held a towel to the cut on his head and simultaneously used it to put pressure on his knuckle.

He entered the Lounge to see Director Fury talking to Coulson.

"What did you do?" He asked Ward, noticing the towel and blood.

"Oh it's nothing. I split my knuckle earlier and I managed to hit myself around the head with a, I think it was a spanner."

Amber and Kain looked confused over this comment, but he had experienced a trauma so they let it go. Coulson and Fury saw the blue in Ward's eyes fading and they understood.

"Simmons. Deal with this. I want him less bloody when I deal with him."

Simmons took the towel and guided Ward into a chair and looked at his wounds. Skye came over to help. She cleaned his knuckle up while Simmons stitched the back of his head up. Simmons then taught Skye to stitch a wound closed, using Ward's knuckle for practise, figuring that it would be a handy skill for her to learn.

"All good?" Fury asked when he saw Simmons leave Ward.

"Yes, Sir."

He looked at Skye.

"Leave"

Skye left and Fury took her place.

"You took the bracelet off."

"Yes Sir."

"How?"

"Fitz. He managed to hack it."

"Looks like I'm going to have to have words with the people who make them."

"Yes Sir."

"Did you do it for the Girl?"

"Not just for the Girl. If any of my team had been taken and I was the last agent available I would have still done it. I know we have the interns but they aren't nearly capable of doing something like that."

"If I told you I want you to put the bracelet back on in order to stay here would you?"

"I would, but after we know Tilly is safely as Phys Acc, just in case."

"Did you teach her those skills?"

"Yeah. Me and Nat. We figured they would come in handy at some point."

"I would like to talk to her about recruitment to the Academy"

"Are you trying to kill of the principal, Sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"Tilly is a combination of me and Nat, in every way. She grew up with us. Knows us, knows our pranks. If you tell the principal at Phys Acc who she is and where she came from he will have a heart attack."

"How's the back feeling?" Fury asked, standing up.

"Fine, Sir."

Fury turned to climb the stairs to Coulson's office.

"Coulson, I am declaring Ward fit for active duty. Just take it easy on him." Fury told him, entering the office.

"At last, Sir. You do know he's been fit for the last six months?" Fury gave him a look that said 'one more word and I will change my mind'.

"Keep Romanov when we land. If this is Covenant she's gonna want a piece of that Pie."

* * *

Skye and Ward had settled into playing chess, as had Amber and Kain.

"Will you stop moving my pieces" Amber was complaining at Kain.

"I'm not touching them" Kain was snapping back.

Ward and Skye were not getting very far with their game through laughing too much. Ward's eyes were bright blue. He was moving the pieces on the AIT's board. They had no idea.

"Half an hour till we land" May told them, entering the Lounge. She had been working out and was now headed towards the cockpit.

"So May?" Kain asked, coming over to Skye and Ward.

"What about her?"

"She didn't transfer from Admin did she?" Amber asked, joining them

"She did actually" Ward told them.

"They way she fights?" Kain continued disbelieving.

Knowing their game with May was finally over, Skye confessed.

"She transferred from the field into Admin."

"Why? She's awesome."

"She went through a few personal difficulties and had to step away." Ward told them, not going into details.

"Personal difficulties? I thought specialists were that good at compartmentalising that they didn't have personal difficulties?"

"Hey. Look at me. I'm here trying to remain calm while my baby sister is on the run from an agency that has now tried to kill me twice. It's not as easy as it looks." Ward admitted.

He looked at Skye and took her hand.

"To be honest. I would probably still be pounding away at the punchbag if Skye wasn't here."

* * *

The stop was another crater. It was on the flight path back to Phys Acc so Coulson decided he couldn't really ignore it. It had been raining, so the ground was a little muddy.

It was just like the others. A large, deep hole in the ground. Ward, taking advantage of the fact that he was now bracelet less, scrambled up the side with May. They reached the top and took a look around. The view was spectacular. Other than the there really wasn't much to see. There was no information on what had caused it, nothing to indicate why it had happened, just a huge amount of electromagnetic energy. They started the climb down to the others.

Suddenly May slipped and, taking Ward with her, fell to the bottom of the crater. They landed in the largest, muddiest puddle imaginable.


	18. Chapter 18

May and Ward squelched their way back to the bus. The others were laughing at them. Ward had certainly made his return to the field a slightly clumsy one.

When they were all in the Lab Ward pulled a large cockroach out of his hair.

"Eww, gross! I'm going to shower" May said, heading off to the shower room.

"Me too." Ward agreed heading out after her.

"They can't go shower. They need to be debriefed. It's procedure!" Amber pointed out.

"I'd like to see you go tell them they can't shower."

"No, Amber is right. We should debrief them immediately. Let's go" Coulson told them. He led the team to the shower room. He was about to open the door when he heard May scream.

Thinking that Ward had played some sort of prank on her Coulson entered the room. Everything seemed normal, Ward had stuck his head around his shower curtain to see what May was screaming at. He looked as confused as Coulson felt. Then he saw the silhouette of May through the curtain. He also saw the big spider crawling up her leg.

"Are you scared of spiders May?" He asked her chuckling. The others, realising it was safe filed into the shower room and congregated around the two in the showers so they could have a conversation.

"No, I'm not. But when the thing crawling up my leg is Nat's namesake" She told them through gritted teeth. The people who know Romanov looked at each other and backed up a couple of paces.

"Excuse me. But what are you guys talking about?" Kain asked.

"There is a Black Widow crawling up May's leg." Coulson informed him.

"I'll go get a box" Simmons said hurrying out of the room.

"Blue eyes, you're up!" Coulson said, looking at Ward.

Skye looked at Ward. She picked up a towel to pass it to him so he could get out of the shower and remove the spider, but she noticed he was still covered in mud, so she put the towel down and picked up his mud soaked boxers and handed them to him with a wink. He put them on and got out of the shower.

"Will someone get this thing off me?" May squealed as the spider made it to her hip.

"How the hell are you going to get that off her without touching it?" Amber asked Ward terrified. She knew the second he did it would bite someone and it would be goodnight Vienna.

"With a really big stick." Ward told her, repeating the line he had said to the others last year with the scorpion.

Simmons returned with the box and she gave it to Ward. He took a deep breath and climbed in the shower with May. Amber and Kain looked horrified that he just did that.

"We're a close knit team" Coulson told them with a chuckle, seeing the looks on their faces.

Five minutes later Ward reappeared from May's shower with the Black Widow safely in the box. He handed it to Coulson and got back in his shower. He took his boxers off and threw them around the curtain at Skye.

"Ok. Back to the debriefing."

"I think Ward just did" Fitz commented with a smile, Simmons and Sky couldn't hold their laughter.

"What did you guys find?" Coulson asked Ward and May, raising his voice so they could hear him over the shower.

"Not a whole hell of a lot. Open space for miles." Ward told him.

"We got nothing new either." Coulson confirmed "I think that's the end of the debrief."

"Don't forget to take that spider with you" Ward joked, sticking his head back out of the shower.

"It's cute, but deadly. I reckon we should call it Nat" Skye said as a joke, peering into the box.

"Yeah, it might escape and crawl back up May's leg." Fitz laughed. May stuck her head out of the shower to give him one of her famous icy stares.

It was at that point Fury found them. He had been looking for them all over the bus since they got back. He expected them to be debriefing in the Lab, but they weren't there. He heard May scream in the distance and followed the sounds to the Lounge, when they weren't there he spotted Simmons come and collect a box. He followed her at a distance, not knowing what she was up to. He heard some of their conversation through the door. Once he felt he had heard enough he went in. He saw Ward and May in the showers with their heads stuck out around the curtain and the rest of the team were fully clothed looking back, Coulson was holding the box with a large deadly looking spider in it. At least he realised why Coulson was the only one to be able to control both Ward _and _Romanov. They were all crazy.

"I do not want to know" was all he could say.


	19. Chapter 19

They landed at Phys Acc. They were only staying long enough to check Tilly was safe, pick up Romanov and drop off Fury and his plane. After the shower incident Fury decided it was safer if he didn't experience the craziness first hand. He would probably end up shooting Ward or Romanov. Besides, he wanted to test Tilly's ability levels himself.

Coulson lowered the cargo ramp and saw Tilly and Romanov walking towards the plane. He felt relieved. He trusted Romanov with his life, but if the Covenant managed to find Tilly in Oxford then anything could have happened.

Ward jumped down off the cargo ramp, the others stood watching. Orders were to stay on the plane. He spread his arms wide open and Tilly ran into them. He gave her the biggest hug he could manage and kissed the top of her head.

"You're staying here until it's over. You will be safe here, and Director Fury is going to talk to you about recruitment. Stay safe and keep your head down." He told her before letting her go. They could see she was crying.

He then embraced Romanov.

"Thanks Nat"

"Well I wasn't going to let her get chased all over Europe by herself by bad ass idiots was I? She's my sister too!"

He let her go and picked her bag up off the floor. He squeezed Tilly's hand and he and Romanov boarded the plane.

During the physical contact Ward made with Romanov, Amber looked sideways to Skye to see how she would react to it. After all, the rumours were well known. She was puzzled to see her smiling.

* * *

After Romanov had settled into her bunk (well it was Skye's bunk but it was the only bed available) Amber and Kain, feeling like they were in the presence of a celebrity, offered to show Romanov around the 'bus not realising that she had been on it before. She looked at Ward and noticed the one smile only she could interpret.

"Sure!" She agreed.

They showed her the workout room, the Lab, kitchen, shower room, and pointed her in the direction of Coulson's office. In the Lab, Romanov noticed the spider. She recognised it as a Black Widow instantly.

"Please tell me you did not call the spider Nat?"

"It was Skye's idea. She said it was cute and deadly so it should be called Nat." Amber told her eagerly.

"I will totally kill her later."

* * *

After the tour the team were taking some down time while flying to the newest crater. They were appearing so fast they were almost having difficulty keeping up!

"So why did you send Tilly to Moscow, why not straight to America?" Kain asked Ward, the answer having bugged him since he found out what the plan was.

"America would be the obvious choice and then it makes it too easy to track her. We set up a trail of passports and cash to follow to the USA without being detected, and her Russian's better than Nat's." he replied.

"That's impressive" May added.

"Why is that so impressive?" Amber asked clueless.

"Nat's Russian." Ward explained.

"_Was. _I _was_ Russian." Romanov shouted across the room. She was trying to get the controls to an electronic game to work.

"Nat, with a name like Natasha Romanov, you will _always_ be Russian" Ward shouted back.

She threw the remote control at the back of his head.

"Ow" Ward said, rubbing the back of his head. He felt a wet patch and looked at his hand. He saw blood.

"Oh well done!" He told her, showing her his hand.

"I didn't throw it that hard!" She protested, coming over to inspect the wound.

"Hard enough to rip a stitch" Skye told her.

"Stitches? What did you do?"

"Spanner" It was all he needed to say.

The AIT's were watching this with interest. Clearly _some_ of the rumours were true. These two were insane apart, unstoppable together. They could read each other like books.

* * *

They got to the crater. It was larger than the previous ones. The team split up to look for information. Romanov, Ward and Skye noticed an abandoned building; well it was more of a ruin at this point and had clearly been for some time. Ward opened the door and went through first, just in case they were walking into a trap. Skye followed leaving Romanov to glance at the horizon before following.

Except, when Romanov walked through the door, Skye and Ward were gone.


	20. Chapter 20

"So what you are telling me is that they walked through _this _door and simply vanished?" Coulson was asking Romanov, walking through the door multiple times to prove his point.

"I don't know what to tell you Coulson. They were there, and then _poof_, they weren't!"

"How do we know they haven't just run off for a little nookie?" Amber asked.

"They wouldn't do that halfway through an investigation. And besides. Do you see an exit?" Romanov asked her.

* * *

Ward has gone through the door and ended up in what looked like deserted wasteland. Skye appeared by his side.

"What on Earth is this place?" She asked him.

"I don't know if it is Earth" he replied, noticing that everything was different.

"Let's go back"

They turned to go back through the door to the outside of the ruin. But the door had gone. It had simply disappeared. They were stuck.

It was cold in the wasteland, so they decided that moving and exploring would be the best option. They set off along what looked like a path. They walked for hours before a large angry growl from behind halted them. They spun to a giant, purple, oozing creature they had dubbed ORSINO closing on them. They only weapon Ward had on him was the air compression device. He didn't really want to use it after last time, but if he had no choice he would.

Suddenly a sword slashed the creature and made it bleed thick fuchsia blood. Ward used the distraction to look for where the sword came from. He saw a grateful sight: Lady Sif of Asgard. She was stood on the other side of the creature preparing to battle. Ward watched and waited for the perfect moment to strike. The creature's tail lashed perilously close to him and Skye so he stabbed it with the device. Skye hit the floor while Ward flung himself at Sif so she wouldn't get hurt. The bright blue wave spread through the air, obliterating the creature and spreading purple ooze everywhere.

"What do you think you are doing? I had it." Sif yelled at Ward, getting to her feet. When she noticed it was Ward she softened.

"Agent Ward? What are you doing here?" Skye plucked the device out of the ground and went over to the other two.

"We went through a door, ended up here and the door disappeared" Ward confessed.

"How did you kill it? We've never been able to do that." Ward handed her the device and told her a little about it.

"So you stab this through its tail and it explodes?" she asked him. She was admiring the weapon that Ward had given her.

"Yeah. Be careful with it though, as you can probably tell, it's a little messy." Skye told her. It was then Sif noticed that they were all covered, head to toe, in purple ooze.

"Do you know how we can get out of here?" Ward asked her.

"The only way I can think is to take you to Asgard and send you home from there."

* * *

Sif took them back to Asgard. They attracted a lot of stares as they were still covered in ooze. She took them to a chamber.

"You may wash up in here. I will have some clothing sent to you. When you are clean and clothed I will collect you and take you to dinner." She told them, ushering them into a magnificent room. It had two bowls of water, in which Ward and Skye, helping each other with the awkward bits, cleaned themselves of ooze. There was a knock on the door and Sif came in with some neatly folded clothes.

"Put these on. You will not attract so many stares."

She handed Ward some standard Asgardian men's clothes and she handed Skye the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. There was just one problem.

"Excuse me, Lady Sif? How do I put this on?"

Sif led Skye around a dressing screen and helped her put the dress on.

"Can you not dress yourself Skye?" She asked concerned.

"No, I mean I can, but I've never worn anything like this before. It's beautiful, and I'm used to buttons and zippers."

"What is a zipper?"

Skye picked up the trousers she had been wearing and showed Sif the zip on them. She opened and closed it a few times before letting Sif have a go.

"This is so much easier to close garments. May I borrow these to take to our seamstresses?"

"I tell you what. Keep them, they're yours."

"Thank you very much Skye" Sif said, still working the zip.

"Guy's I don't know about you but I'm clean and changed!" Ward said from the other side of the screen.

"I will escort you to dinner." Sif said stepping out from the screen. Ward was perched on the edge of the bed waiting patiently. When he saw Skye he stood up and his mouth hit the floor. She looked simply stunning. Sif smiled at his reaction and recognised a man in love.

She escorted them to dinner. Sif looked around the room, as if she was looking for someone.

"Wait here." She told Skye and Ward as she wandered into the middle of the room.

She approached a tall man, wearing battle armour. He had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She reached up and whispered something into his ear before leading him over to the two waiting agents.

"Thor, this is Agent Grant Ward and Skye. They work with Agent Coulson" They looked at her, mouths slightly open. Had she told Thor Coulson was still alive? Judging by her expression she had kept her word, until that point.

"Phil Coulson is dead. I saw him die."

"Thor, he lives. He asked me not to tell you, he wished to do so himself."

"It's true." Skye said, trying to help Sif out of what was clearly an awkward moment for her.

"Come and dine with us tonight. I will personally take you back to Midgard in the morning." He told them, extending his arm out to Skye who, after a quick glance at Ward, took it.

Ward extended his arm to Sif who took it, and also took the opportunity to talk to him about Skye, and May, and how they were dealing with the aftermath of Lorelli.

"You and Skye seem very happy together." She said to him as Skye was being introduced to the rest of Thor's friends. Wearing that dress she was proving to be very popular.

"We are."

"So why are you still so confused in your heart?"

"I'm not."

"You love this woman and she clearly loves you in return. So why won't you let yourself love her with all of your heart?"

"How do you know?"

"I have seen it before. You are holding back with her Agent Ward. Why?"

"Fear."

"What makes you fearful?"

"The unknown. I've never felt this way before. I've never told a woman I loved her and meant it before Skye. But the life we lead..."

"Makes it difficult to plan a future, let alone build one." Sif finished for him, handing him a drink..

"Exactly. We are happy as we are and yes you are right. I'm holding back. I can't love her the way I want to love her. Not to mention we have we have more important things to worry about that us right now."

"There is nothing more important than the people that you love. I have an idea." She said, getting up and pulling Skye to one side.

**A/N: Any guesses what Sif has talked Ward and Skye into?**


	21. Chapter 21

Ward was stood at the window, staring out over Asgard, wrapped in a sheet. He had never felt this happy, or content. He just hoped it would last. He glanced at Skye in the bed. She got up and joined him at the window.

"I can't believe we just did that" She said to him as she wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I can't believe we just did that either. Do you feel different?"

"Well I didn't grow a tail so I'm good!"

"Skye."

"Hey look! A shooting star. Make a wish." She said pointing at the shooting star in the clear night.

"What did you wish for?" She asked him.

"I didn't make one."

"Why?"

"Because everything I've ever dreamed of having is right in front of me." He said turning around and kissing her.

They were woken in the morning by Sif, telling them to get up and dressed. Once they were wearing the clothes they had been given the previous evening, Thor led them down the rainbow bridge to the bifrost.

* * *

"Coulson. We have a problem" Fitz threw at Coulson as he entered the Lab.

"You mean bigger than the one where we lost two Agents?"

"Can't we track them using those heart thingy's that you said all agents above level seven have?" Amber asked, remembering the conversation she had with Skye when she arrived.

"What tracker thingy's?" Romanov asked her.

"You know, the ones Fury implants into cardiac tissue to track his higher level agents. It's what caused Coulson's scar"

Romanov looked at Coulson confused.

"It's a much bigger problem!" Simmons interrupted.

"What is it then?"

"We have detected an Asgardian electrical surge about 40 miles from here."

"That's not a problem. They're allies" Romanov countered.

"The last Asgardian electrical surge brought us a sorceress that could bend the will of men with her voice, or in stubborn cases like Ward, her touch. She turned both Ward and Fitz, nearly killed May and almost destroyed the 'bus."

"That's not good." Romanov conceded.

"Let's load the vans" Coulson told them.

* * *

An hour later the team arrived at the location Fitz had spotted. They got out of the van and looked around. They couldn't see anything. Romanov looked down the road they had just come down. That's when she saw the hammer; large and ancient looking with ornate inscribing. She hit Coulson on the shoulder and walked slowly towards it.

"Muir Muir" She said.

"What's Muir Muir?" Amber asked.

"Thor's hammer." Coulson told her.

There came a sudden crack of lightening behind them and Muir Muir started moving. It rose into the air and they saw Muir Muir speed past them. They all turned to the most magnificent sight. Ward, Sif, Thor and Skye all stood before them. Oddly enough, all four were emanating extreme power.

They climbed down off the rocks they were stood on. Thor approached Coulson and embraced him like an old friend.

"Phil Coulson. You are looking well." He said

"I'm feeling well, considering the last time you saw me your brother killed me."

"I am truly sorry for that"

"Don't be. I'm alive to tell the tale! You remember Natasha?"

"Of course." Thor replied, giving Romanov a hug and a kiss on the cheek. After all they did fight an army together in New York.

Meanwhile Sif had approached the rest of the team, the ones she was familiar with any way.

"Agent May, I brought you a gift." She said as she produced a beautiful double ended sword and handed it to the baffled agent.

"It's beautiful, but I can't keep it" She said to Sif.

"Please. I insist. You were most helpful when I was here before."

Thor introduced Romanov to Sif and Sif introduced him to May, Fitz and Simmons.

"Well, we have come here deliver your wandering friends, but I am afraid it is time for us to leave." Thor said nodding at Coulson. Before he shouted for the bifrost to collect him and Sif, he took Skye's hand and kissed it.

"Enjoy" was all he said to her before the bifrost took them back to Asgard.

Coulson rounded on Ward and Skye.

"How the hell did you two turn up in Asgard?" He asked them.

They told the team how they went through the door and ended up in a deserted wasteland, got cornered by an ORSINO, which they also learned was called a bilgesnipe, rescued by Sif and taken to Asgard where she and Thor insisted on them cleaning up, changing, having a meal and sleeping before they returned to Earth. They also told Coulson how Sif had accidentally told Thor about his survival.

The others sat fascinated as Ward and Skye described Asgard and its palace where they stayed.

Everyone noticed that there was a definite change in Ward and Skye's behaviour. What it was they didn't know.


	22. Chapter 22

Romanov was playing five fingers with Kain. He had asked her for some training, so she sat him in a chair, spread his hands out on a chopping board and started stamping a knife in between his fingers (God forbid Coulson's temper if she damaged the 'bus again). She told him this was teaching him to remain calm under pressure. She started off slowly to get her rhythm. The faster she got the less she looked at what she was doing. When she saw Kain flinch she slammed the knife into the board.

"If you can't handle that you're likely to pee yourself when confronted" She told him. Kain got up from the table and went to sit with Amber. He wasn't going to ask her for training again.

Ward took Kain's seat. Romanov started her rhythm again, slowly and carefully, building up to fast and frenzied.

"You seem different?" She told him, looking into his face.

"Do I?" He said. She caught the faintest hint of a blush on the top of his ears.

"What did you do?"

"What makes you think I've done anything?"

"You seem calm, peaceful, hell, you seem like you have compartmentalized every feeling you have, including the ones you struggle with."

"Maybe I learned how!"

"Bull!" Skye came into the room and its occupants felt that overwhelming sense of power again. Romanov stopped her knife game and looked at Skye. She also seemed calm and collected.

"They are still the same people, but something is different" She thought to herself.

* * *

Ward was sat in the Lab, having his most recent injury stitched (Romanov had landed a kick to his face and split his cheek). He was staring at the board. He suddenly realised why there were no patterns to the crater attacks. Maybe it was because there was no pattern to find.

He jumped off the table, making Simmons who was halfway through stitching his cheek up jump. Leaving her and Romanov in the Lab he ran off to find Skye to run his theory by her, thread still dangling from his cheek. He found her and pulled her back to the Lab. He settled back on the table and Simmons resumed stitching up his cheek.

"What if these attacks aren't in a pattern?" Ward pointed out

"Well that's evident Captain Obvious" Simmons retorted. If there was a pattern to the craters she and Fitz would have found it.

"What if they aren't random either?" He said, completely confusing Simmons. Skye looked at the board. She saw it.

"Convergence points" She said, almost under her breath.

"Exactly"

"What are convergence points?" Simmons asked. She still wasn't following. She looked at Romanov, who clearly wasn't either.

"Convergence points. The weakest point where two worlds meet." Skye told them.

"The device the Covenant have been using isn't making the craters as such. They are trying to open a portal." Ward continued.

"It makes sense. It could be how we found that one and ended up in Asgard."

"So how are the craters formed?" Simmons asked, not quite keeping up.

"Maybe their calculations are off" Romanov suggested, starting to understand.

"They aren't hitting the door spot on, so the beams they are firing are being returned"

"And that much of electromagnetic energy being focussed on one spot would cause massive destruction." Simmons added, finally getting there.

"So how did that portal you two went through open?"

"What if they only half hit the door? It could be how we found that baby bilgesnipe. It came through a portal."

* * *

"So if I win, you tell him how you feel, and if you win I tell you what happened in Asgard?" Ward asked Romanov

"Deal."

They were sat on opposite sides of the table. One gun and a bullet between them.

"Hey, May. Please could you load the gun and spin the barrel?"

"Sure." She did as she was asked, wondering what crazy stunt they were planning. She handed the gun to Romanov. She pointed it at Ward's head and pulled the trigger. Click. She put the gun down on the table, he picked it up and held it to her head. He pulled the trigger. Click. Distracted from their game of battleship Kain and Amber started watching. May, knowing what was going to inevitably happen went to the cockpit. She didn't want to see it. Romanov pulled the trigger on Ward again. Click. Neither of them made any reaction to the trigger being pulled.

Coulson walked by as Romanov put the gun on the table for Ward to pick up.

"What are you two doing?"

"I'm playing roulette with a Russian." Ward told him, picking up the gun and pointing it at Romanov.

"So why is it now ok to call her Russian?" Coulson heard Amber ask Kain as he started to climb the stairs to his office.

Roulette, Russian. Coulson paused on the steps.

"Russian Roulette" he suddenly realised and turned around just in time to see Ward pull the trigger.

_*BANG*_

The gun went off and Amber screamed.


	23. Chapter 23

Coulson watched in horror as the gun went off.

"How could they both be so stupid?" he thought.

Then he noticed Nat was sat calling Ward all the names under the sun. That's when he realised that the bullet had been a blank and the game a prank.

"That was not funny." He told them.

"It wasn't meant to be" Romanov replied.

"So why do it?"

"Teaching" Ward told him.

"Teaching?" Coulson replied. Amber and Kain were sat behind him, still in shock.

"We just showed them that sometimes you need to pull the trigger as heartlessly for someone you know and care about as you do for a stranger."

"You two are assassins. They aren't!"

"They will be one day. Isn't that the plan?"

Coulson stormed off, reeling. Why did Fury keep doing this to him?

Skye had heard the shot and went to investigate. She saw Ward and Romanov sat opposite each other; a gun lay on the table. She saw Coulson shouting at them and the AIT's looking a little green around the gills. When Coulson had finished shouting at them and left, Skye went up and stood behind Ward. She put her right hand on his shoulder and he reached up to hold it.

"What were you guys doing?"

"Quick game of Russian Roulette"

Romanov felt that power again. The word suddenly came to her. Unity. Then she saw it; a small brown band on the little finger of Ward's right hand, and a matching one on Skye's.

"Holy Crap" She said, staring at them.

Ward and Skye looked at each other then back at Romanov. Taking one hand each they pulled her to the most private place they knew. The showers.

"Holy Crap!" She repeated and started pacing.

"Nat?" She waved her hand in his face to stop him talking.

"You two disappear to Asgard for one night and you end up. Holy Crap!" She stopped pacing and sank to the floor in disbelief. Looking back at them she asked:

"How the hell did they convince you that getting married would be a good idea?"

"It's a long story." Skye admitted.

Once Romanov had calmed down they told her the reasoning behind it. Once they had finished even she agreed it made sense.

"No wonder you both look so calm and peaceful."

"It's a weird feeling that's hard to describe" Ward admitted, looking at Skye.

"How are you going to tell the others? How are you going to tell Tilly? Holy Crap I can't take this!"

* * *

It took a few days for Romanov to get used to the idea of her best friend having got married in secret. They were laid on their backs on their sofa, heads on each other's shoulders, throwing a ball from one hand to the other. If you watched closely enough you could see a pattern: Ward's left hand, Romanov's right, Ward's right and finishing on Romanov's left, before starting again. Ward was also practising his skill and was spinning a knife in the middle of the room.

They were talking in very hushed voices. Coulson, who was watching the cameras was getting nervous.

"So it wasn't a wedding like we would have."

"No. It was more like a binding. Thor tied a silk rope around our hands, said some words, the rope glowed and that was pretty much it."

"Really?"

"Well they did carry us out of the hall on chairs." He told her with a grin.

"Well that explains that feeling I've been getting when the two of you are in a room together."

"Could well be"

"What did he make you promise?" She asked, trying to find out how Asgardian weddings differed from theirs.

Amber came into the room, followed by Skye and Kain. She screamed when she saw the spinning knife and ran behind Kain. Skye, looking at Ward approached the knife.

"Don't Skye, it might be dangerous!" Amber whined as Skye moved closer. The second Skye touched the knife it fell to the floor with a clang.

The memory seemed to have jolted something in Ward because he sat bolt upright.

"I know how to find the Covenant." He said.

* * *

Everyone gathered in the lounge, as the Lab was now too small for so many people.

"That's crazy!" Amber said as Ward outlined his plan

"It might just work" Romanov pointed out. It was crazier than the plan they had come up with the previous year.

"You would need to have a very large team to pull that off" Kain pointed out.

"No, we only need five"

"Five people"

"Two assault, One IT, One Cover Fire and One back up."

"Who would you have as cover fire? Whoever you choose, they would have to be the best."

"Hawkeye" Romanov, May, Ward and Skye all said together.

"Fury will never sign off on this" Coulson told them. "Especially seen as though it involves Ward, Romanov _and _Hawkeye"

"Why would Fury decline the mission because of who is running it?" Amber asked.

"Last year Ward and Romanov were the agents that infiltrated the Covenant hideout. Fury put Ward on the inactive list for a year, even when he passed all of his physicals after six months. Hawkeye was the same! He got shot on a mission and was inactive for a long time."

"Does Fury have to know?" Skye asked.

"In order to get Hawkeye on the 'bus he will."

"Or not. Nat do you have a EMC number for him?"

Romanov pulled out her phone and dialled Hawkeye's emergency number.

"You free to talk?" She asked, putting him on loudspeaker.

"Sure. What's up?"

"We have a mission we need your help with. Low Key, under the radar"

"By under the radar you actually mean under Fury's radar?"

"Precisely."

"Whose we?"

"Hey dude!"

"Blue Eyes? Is that you?"

"Sure is!"

"I hear congrats are needed."

Ward looked at Romanov who avoided his gaze.

"We'll talk about that later. Can you help?"

"Sure. Pick me up?"

"Where are you?"

"Prague"

"Meet us at the airport. We'll be there in five hours." May told him.

"Copy that" Hawkeye told her hanging up.

"Well that's the cover sorted. What's next?"


	24. Chapter 24

They spent the next week planning their moves carefully. Ward and Romanov would be frequently seen tying each other up using the knots they knew the Covenant favoured and tried to get out of them. Fitz-Simmons spent the time perfecting monitors and trackers that would allow them to track the agents movements, heart rates and conversations, without being detected. Skye was trying to figure out the best way to hack her way into their system, but without their computer she couldn't get very far, so she joined in with the knots. Coulson was making sure that they were flying well under Fury's radar and Amber and Kain were throwing things for Hawkeye to shoot. They were fascinated by him. They never saw him miss, even when they insisted he shoot blindfolded. The interns were getting exicited. They had never seen the team so serious for a mission. They usually just winged it!

"We've got the transmitters as small as we can, but they are still big enough that if they pat you down they are going to find them." Simmons told them, showing them the microtransmitters they had come up with.

"So how do we proceed?"

"Sub-dermal implantation" Ward and Skye said together.

They had got the idea from Skye's joke about the trackers being implanted into cardiac tissue.

"That's a good idea. Implant the trackers into our skin and they won't get found when they pat us down." Romanov agreed.

"I thought you guys already had them, being level eight agents? We saw the implantation scars on Coulsons chest" Amber pointed out.

"We've never done that. We never had trackers in our hearts. Especially not ones that could be hacked."

"So how did Coulson get the scar?"

"He got stabbed through the heart by Loki, Thor's brother." Romanov told her.

Fitz-Simmons placed the trackers into everyone involved in this mission who were getting off the bus. Hawkeye and May had theirs placed in their upper arms, Ward had his placed in the scar on his back, Skye had hers placed in her wrist and Romanov had hers placed by her collar bone. They had decided that they should differ the locations as they could pass them off as training exercise accidents.

"The only thing left to do is figure out how to untie those bonds. They'll take a knife off us for sure." Romanov told everyone.

"Wait. I think I have a solution to that!" Ward said.

He flexed his wrists and allowed Hawkeye to tie them up as tight as he could and suspend him from the ceiling.

"Nat, now you. Flex your wrists the way I showed you."

Hawkeye tied her up. Ward ordered him to tie Skye up as well. Once all of them were suspended from the ceiling Ward set to work. Flexing their wrists had forced the knots to be looser than they would normally be, and if they didn't struggle they would remain loose.

Ward set to on the knots. He started on Romanov's. He focussed all of his attention on the knot, his eyes turned blue and slowly the knot started to come undone. She dropped to the floor and landed cat like. Ward moved his attention to his own knot. Again it slowly came undone and he dropped to the floor. He then moved to Skye's knot. Again he focussed all of his attention on the knot. Skye dropped to the floor like the others. They had discussed this order in great detail. Romanov was to drop first. She could then defend Ward and Skye while he undid his own knots. He would drop next so that he could help Romanov if he needed to and Skye, being the least experienced would drop last.

Amber and Kain watched this in fascination. They had never seen Ward use his 'special skill' before (he had always used it on them without them knowing about it) and now understood why his code name is Blue Eyes.

"I have an idea for the video feed" Romanov said.

They spent another week planning, making back up plans and back up plans to the back up plans. Ward, Romanov and Skye practised their escape many more times until they could do in within minutes of being tied.

Romanov and Fitz also worked on her idea to provide the team with video feed. It was one single contact lens. It should not interfere with her vision, but just to be safe she would be the one to wear it as they couldn't risk Ward and Skye not being able to see. It matched the colour of her eye perfectly and concealed the tiny camera perfectly.

* * *

As the date of their assault got closer, tension grew and the 'bus became deathly quiet. There was a beeping noise from Coulson's office.

"That'll be director Fury. He keeps calling to check that I'm coping with these two." Coulson told them, nodding at Ward and Romanov.

"He has no idea that Hawkeye is on the 'bus, so Clint, make like a banana." He continued, climbing the stairs to his office.

"How's it going?" Fury asked Coulson when he switched the video link

"They are behaving themselves"

"That's shocking."

"I'm slightly concerned they are planning a big finale for the interns."

"Let them have it. They need to have their fun, if they don't we all suffer."

"Yes Sir."

"AAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!"

"I think you spoke too soon. Transfer me to the lounge."

Coulson did, and when he made it into the lounge it transpired that his team , knowing Fury was on the line, decided to liven things up. It looked like they had split into two teams and one person had volunteered to stand against the wall (the interns had volunteered, they didn't want to hurt the crew before the big mission!) and the others were taking it in turns to throw knives at them.

"What the hell are you doing?" Fury demanded.

"Beetle Drive, Sir" Ward said.

"Beetle Drive?"

"Yeah, roll a six you get the body, five you get the head, four is the tail, three are legs, two are antlers and one are eyes." Romanov told him, rolling a three and throwing the knife at Kain's legs and pinning his trousers to the wall."

"Coulson, tell them to play twister, it was safer."

"Yes, Sir."

"And stop them before I have to explain to an interns parent's why they have a knife sticking out of their eye."

"Yes, Sir."

Fury hung up and Coulson looked back to his team.

"Are you trying to get me fired?"

"Fury wouldn't fire you. He gives you free reign _and_ he gave you a 'bus.

"Hawkeye, It's safe to come out now!"


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: I'm sorry about the lack of update yesterday. I simply couldn't ignore my coursework any longer! **

"Have we covered everything?"

"I think so."

"Are you sure you all want to do this?" Coulson asked Romanov, Ward and Skye.

"Yes" was the reply from all of the agents.

"Check your 'shutes, we'll be there soon"

Ward checked the strapping on Romanov's parachute and then she did the same to Ward. When she was satisfied she fixed a harness to Skye. She had never parachuted before and they all felt this was NOT the time to be teaching her. When Romanov was satisfied Skye's harness was secure she fastened Skye to Ward.

Everyone came in to watch them jump. Coulson lowered the access ramp and Ward, with Skye, and Romanov took up their positions.

"Mission is a go, in three, two" Coulson counted.

"We have something we need to tell you guy's" Skye said.

Everyone looked at her.

"One". Coulson finished

Ward and Romanov jumped backwards out of the plane, the others could hear Ward shouting something, they weren't entirely sure what it was.

They stood there very confused, watching the monitors. Skye's heart rate was all over the place, Ward's was holding steady and so was Romanov's. The eye-cam Romanov was wearing was working perfectly.

They saw Romanov land and as she looked up they saw Ward and Skye untangling themselves from their parachute. They turned the microphone system on (they didn't want to know what a 30,000 foot drop sounded like).

"We're online, Can you hear us?"

"I can" Romanov confirmed

"Me too" Ward confirmed

"Me three" Skye confirmed, after scrubbing her wrist a couple of times.

"And now we wait." Ward said.

The three of them took up positions on a rock.

"Blue eyes?" Simmons asked.

"Yes?"

"Did I hear you right when you jumped of the 'bus? Did you say you and Skye got married?"

They heard a chuckle down the microphone, and from behind. Apparently Romanov and Hawkeye both knew.

"Yeah. I did."

"We thought we'd tell you before we went on a mission where there is like a 95% we're gonna die"

"How thoughtful! When the hell did you two have the time to get married?"" Coulson demanded.

"Asgard"

"Of course."

"We have company" Romanov told them, halting the conversation. She had seen the black SUV's on the horizon.

"Stay safe, all of you. Commencing radio silence until intervention point bravo."

"Copy"

* * *

"Agent Romanov, Agent Ward and Agent?" Deep voice asked as his men tied them all up, clearly recovered after being shot by May.

"Skye"

"Skye, that's a pretty name by the way, welcome to the worst day of the rest of your lives"

"I've had worse" Romanov pointed out.

They were patted down for transmitters, and when none were found a bag was placed over their heads and they were bundled into a van. How long they were in the van they didn't know, but when they were dragged from it they felt their restraints being retied and then they were lifted from the ground.

* * *

Back on the 'bus Fitz and Simmons were tracking the agent's movements. They saw from the video feed that their faces had been covered. They could still hear every word though.

"We should just kill them"

"The boss wants them alive, he wants our weapon back"

The team tracked the convoy for 130 miles to a house in the middle of nowhere. Then they heard a voice that made May and Hawkeye's voice run cold just as the video feed came back on, confirming their fears.

* * *

"You two are a pain in my arse" They heard someone say as the sacks over Romanov, Ward and Skye's heads heads were removed.

"You're behind all this?" Ward asked, shocked. Romanov couldn't speak. Skye didn't have a clue what was going on.

* * *

"Coulson, How's the crater hunt going?" Fury asked him over the video feed in the Lounge. He would have answered it in his office but he didn't have time to get there without it being suspicious.

"Every crater is the same, Sir. We get there and all we find is an enormous amount of Electromagnetic energy. The most we have come up with are that they are all located at convergence points around the world."

"Convergence points. How the hell do you know about convergence points? They're classified Top Secret."

"Ward and Skye, Sir. They learned of them on their little trip to Asgard."

"Ward and Skye ended up in Asgard?"

"We have a problem" Hawkeye told Coulson as he burst his way into the Lounge "Busted"

"Hawkeye, What the hell are you doing on the 'bus?"


	26. Chapter 26

Ignoring Director Fury on the video feed, Hawkeye proceeded to tell Coulson the problem they had encountered.

"Are you sure it's him?" Coulson asked.

"Positive."

"You're telling me that AD Jefferson is heading the Covenant. An organisation hell bent on destroying the world?"

"Yes."

"You and May better set off and get into position."

"Sir."

Coulson turned back to the screen where Director Fury was watching, disapprovingly.

"My team have just learned that the head of the Covenant is Assistant Director Jefferson."

"WHAT?" Fury exploded.

"It's a shock to us too Sir."

"Where are your people?"

Coulson looked to the ground and mumbled.

"Coulson, I will not ask you again. Where are your people?"

"Skye, Ward and Romanov are at their headquarters, Hawkeye and May are now on route to provide back up, the interns are driving and Fitz-Simmons are running mission control from here."

Fury looked sideways; Coulson assumed Hill was there, shaking her head.

"Get me into their feed."

"You won't be able to hack their feed this time, Sir" Coulson told him "The transmitters were specially designed to be undetectable to anyone scanning for a frequency. We are the only ones with the capability to hear it."

"Well then Coulson, transfer me to your mission control, and Hill, get me a jet."

"They're all offline, Sir. It's going to take three hours."

* * *

The Covenant had learned their lesson last time; do not leave Ward and Romanov in a room alone, even strung up to the ceiling by their wrists. None of the agents had struggled, they had prepared for this. They had not prepared for the loony behind it to be one of their own.

Ward, very slowly undid Romanov's foot binds until she could just tear her feet apart. Then he moved onto her hands. Before the guards knew what had hit them Romanov was free and fighting. She knocked them all unconscious. As soon as he had freed Romanov, Ward started on his own bonds. Romanov found a knife on one of the guards and hacked away at the rope around his feet. Once Ward was free he used the knife to free Skye, it was quicker.

"Phase one complete." He said to mission control.

"Hawkeye in position."

"Cavalry in position."

"Copy that."

"Do you want the better news?" Hawkeye asked to the group as a whole.

"What?" asked Romanov.

"We've been busted by Fury. He's trying to hack into our feed."

"Hey Nat. Do you think we can actually give the principal a heart attack when we get our asses shipped back off to Phys Acc?"

"Maybe. Let's not blow up his car this time though."

"Commence phase two." Mission Control told them.

Romanov picked the lock on the door and the three of them crept out of the corridor down to where they assumed the computer room was. Skye had pointed out the air conditioning ducts, as they were in the middle of the dessert and the corridors were painfully hot it made sense they were there to cool the computers.

When they reached the computer room Skye started downloading any incriminating evidence that she could while Romanov and Ward planted detonators.

"I'm done. It's all here." Skye said handing Ward a hard drive.

"Safer with me right?" He said to her with a grin, repeating what she had said to him the last time she had handed him a hard drive.

"Absolutely."

"Timers set for 25 minutes, if they find them and try stop them they will detonate, so let's get out of here." Romanov said to them as she walked over.

Checking the coast was clear the three of them crept out of the computer room, Romanov first, and then Skye with Ward pulling up the rear, and tried to find their way out of the building.

Skye heard a noise from behind her. She turned and saw a guard stood behind Ward, choking him with a garrotte, Ward's eyes bulging. He saw the fear in Skye's eyes as she tried to catch Romanov's arm and he slammed the guard back into the wall. A few expert martial arts moves later and the guard was lying on the floor not moving. Romanov and Skye ran over to Ward to check his throat.

"Is it ok?" Skye asked, scared at the amount of blood around his neck.

"I've had worse shaving cuts." He croaked out, feeling his neck.

"The boss told me you guys were good, but you really are good. One day you will have to teach me how to get out of those knots." Deep Voice told them.

"Bite Me."

"Or not. I have orders." Thirty men surrounded them and bound their wrists again, before searching them to make sure they hadn't acquired any weapons.

They were led to the roof and forced to their knees. Three guards stood behind them, machine guns ready to fire.

"Any last words?"

"You're a maniac?"


	27. Chapter 27

"Coulson. We didn't make a plan for this" Simmons almost cried. She was starting to panic.

"Plan X Coulson." Director Fury ordered.

Coulson picked up the microphone.

"All agents, all agents, initiating plan X"

The interns looked at each other confused, they hadn't organised a plan X. Fitz and Simmons were also looking at each other confused. They had never heard of plan X either.

"This is Hawkeye, I copy"

"May, I copy"

"Nat, I have something to tell you. I have your copy of War and Peace." Ward told her.

"YOU have my copy of War and Peace? I've been looking for that for months."

"Go, go, go" Coulson ordered. "May, I want you to hold."

* * *

Ward knew the key would be to keep Deep Voice talking for a couple of seconds.

"So what's your name deep voice?" Ward asked him.

"Why do you want to know?"

"So I can add it to your file when I kill you."

"I think you're overestimating your abilities."

_Thwack, thwack, thwack_.

Three arrows, three guards eye sockets. Romanov and Ward slit their ropes on one of the arrows and proceeded through plan X. Ward first made sure Skye was safely out of the way.

* * *

The team saw Ward and Romanov fight like they had never seen them before. Each blow was damaging to their opposition and when the two agents had obtained their weapons the guards were quickly killed. Of course Hawkeye's arrows helped them along a great deal.

"Plan X?" Simmons asked Coulson.

"Plan to eXecute. It means use deadly force."

* * *

"Ward, we have 60 seconds to get out of this building!" Romanov shouted at him. They knew they weren't going to make it out down the stairs. They ran to the edge of the roof. There were no buildings within jumping distance and Hawkeye was too far away for the cable to be any good. Ward suddenly saw something.

"May, the frog is running straight into your line of fire." He told her as he saw AD Jefferson making a run for it.

The three of them looked at each other. They would have to jump. They climbed onto the ledge. Romanov jumped first. When she was about to land on the cold hard earth she suddenly stopped, then dropped the three foot to the ground. She picked herself up, unhurt. She looked up to see Ward putting his arms around Skye. They were going to jump together. He looked straight at Romanov, eyes still blue.

"Go!" He yelled. "We'll be right behind you!"

"Right, explosives" She remembered before sprinting away from the building. She turned to watch Ward and Skye. He jumped backwards off the building, so that Skye was on top of him, and if he messed up on timing he would take the brunt of the fall.

Ward didn't mess up on the timing. As he had with Romanov, he stopped himself and Skye three foot off the ground, but then his concentration was broken by a very loud explosion. The detonators exploded better than they thought they would and Ward was forced to roll over, pressing Skye into the ground; otherwise they would have both died.

* * *

The team were watching all of this through Romanov's eye cam. Even though they could see Ward and Skye's heartbeats clearly displayed on the monitors, they were sure they would be dead soon.

They were shocked when the fireball cleared and Romanov headed back towards the now burning building and helped Ward and Skye off the floor. She checked them both over for serious injuries, but the worst injury was to Ward's shirt, which was slightly singed.

"I think that's phase three complete" Coulson heard Skye say, coughing slightly

"You two alright?" Coulson asked.

"You know that conversation we keep having?" Coulson heard Ward ask Romanov

"Don't go there."

"I think it's definitely the right time to collect on roulette."

"You ok?" Coulson asked again.

"We're fine. Singed rather than crispy" Ward told him.

"Mission Control, I have the frog, ribbet, ribbet." They all heard May say.

"Complete phase four and then come on home"

"Copy that!"

Ward, Romanov and Skye untied the thin silken rope they had all concealed on their persons (Romanov and Skye in their hair and Ward around his shoelaces) and proceeded to round up Covenant members who had survived the blast. There were one or two who resisted, but soon held their hands up in defeat when they were hit by Romanov or Ward.

"Mission Control, we have ten prisoners." Romanov told them as they lined the last one up.

* * *

"What do you wish us to do, Sir" Coulson asked Fury.

"What was your original plan?"

"Tie them all to the cargo door with a pressure device so if any of them escape their bonds the door will open and they will all fall out."

"Sounds good to me, I will meet you at the Fridge."

"I thought we had abandoned the Fridge after Hydra?"

"New location, same principle. I will guide the 'bus as soon as May has it in the air and I will tell them you are coming."

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

The van arrived first with the Interns, May, Hawkeye and their prisoner. They saw director Fury on the screen and the also saw the after effects of the explosives off Romanovs camera. May took the prisoner to the 'busses cell. Hawkeye took off his quiver and shut his bow down.

It was a short while later they saw Ward, Romanov and Skye leading their prisoners to the 'bus on foot. The team cheered. They had done it. The insane and crazy plan had worked. They had taken out the Covenant.

And no one died this time.

When the cargo doors were closed and the prisoners secured to it Ward took Skye in his arms and kissed her. They looked up just in time to see Romanov stride up to Hawkeye, put her hand on the back of his head and pull him into a kiss.

"Hmhm" They all heard a cough from behind them. They had completely forgotten about Fury on the monitor. He had just witnessed everything.

"Hit the showers" He told the team, noticing how dirty and singed they all were.

"Sounds like a plan" Ward said, sly smile on his face.

Ward, Skye, Romanov, Hawkeye and May all raced off for a shower. Reality suddenly dawning on Fury.

"Coulson, there are only three showers. There's five of them."

"We're a close team." Was all Coulson could say to him.

The interns, Fitz and Simmons just laughed.


	28. Chapter 28

They met Director Fury at the Fridge and deposited all of the prisoners for detention. Fury made sure his AD was located in the smallest cell available. The rest of the prisoners were given slightly more spacious accommodation. At least they could sit on the floor.

When the prisoners were secure Fury ordered the team back to the Hub for a full debrief. The flight was long one so they put a movie on. The needed to wind down, and above all of the boy's protests the girls won and put a rom-com on. Skye used her laptop and streamed Sleepless in Seattle. It was far enough away from what they had all been through so everyone could relax. Within the first half hour everyone but Coulson and Skye were asleep. Kain was in his usual position of his legs dangling off over the edge of the sofa; Amber was next to him, curling slightly into his back. Fitz and Simmons were curled up together again, May had fallen asleep on Ward's shoulder, Romanov had her legs across Wards lap and Hawkeye had his arms around her body, pulling her into him. Skye and Coulson were sat at the bar.

"Are you ok?" he asked her. She had never heard or seen plan X, not to mention the trauma she had been through before that.

"I'm ok. It's just all changed. We're finally safe from the Covenant and..." She trailed off looking at Ward, Romanov and Hawkeye.

"Love is in the air?" Coulson finished for her.

Skye simply smiled her response.

"Did you and Ward really get married in Asgard?"

"Yeah. Sif and Thor made a very convincing arguement."

"I bet they did. What else did they say?"

"Everyone has a soul mate and the ritual wouldn't work if we hadn't been."

"I understand. Everyone has that one special someone."

There was a massive amount of turbulence and all of the sleepy heads woke with a start. May got up to check the flight plan. Ward looked at Skye at the bar and she went to settle into May's vacant spot, She returned and settled in next to Skye. Before long the agents were asleep again, so Coulson got his camera from his office and took a picture.

They were that far gone they didn't realise Coulson landed the 'bus at the Hub and had lowered the Cargo doors. Director Fury concerned at the lack of activity and noise went to investigate. Coulson handed him an air horn. The agents awoke with another start, this time to Director Fury stood over them.

There was a mad scramble to get off the sofa.

"Outside. 5 minutes." Fury told them.

* * *

"Romanov, Ward. I have a new lie detector test I want you to both try. Go with Browne." Fury was handing out assignments.

Romanov and Ward followed Agent Browne to the new lie detector test.

"May, Barton, I want you in the weapons vault" Hawkeye and May went to the weapons vault as instructed.

"Skye, my idiots over there are trying to Hack into Jefferson's files. Go show them how it's done."

Skye went in the direction she was pointed.

"Coulson, go stop Romanov and Ward killing each other. You seem to be the only one who can."

Coulson set off for the test chamber.

"Interns, wait there. Fitz-Simmons. The lab want you to show them those trackers you developed on the bus."

"The trackers!" Simmons said, slapping her head and running up to Skye.

It took Fitz a couple of seconds to realise they hadn't removed the trackers, they had just muted them. He went sprinting in the direction of Ward and Romanov.

"What's their deal?" Fury asked.


	29. Chapter 29

"So Romanov finally found the balls to admit she has feelings for you?" May asked Hawkeye as they were inspecting some new weapons Fury had commissioned.

"Not exactly. All she did was kiss me."

"What the hell did you talk about in the shower?"

"Who says we talked?" He said with a devious grin.

* * *

"These devices are small enough to be undetectable under the skin, yet powerful enough to transmit audio and location. With the right tweaking we also managed to turn them into two way communicators, so the agents using them could also hear us." Fitz was telling the Hub's science department.

They were amazed, last year these scientists on a plane handed then monitors that could track heart rates and blood pressures, now they had reduced them to an inch long with a separate video feed set into a contact lens. One scientist saw a problem with it though.

"How do the agents wear these?" he asked.

"They are the perfect size to implant under the skin" Simmons explained.

* * *

"Eye colour?" Ward asked Romanov.

"Brown" Ward could clearly see that it was a lie. Romanov's eyes are blue, but the machine didn't spike.

"Nationality?"

"Birth or Accepted?"

"Birth"

"Austrian"

The machine still didn't spike. She was beating it, which Fury wouldn't be happy about.

"Do you feel better now that you have kissed Clint Barton?"

The machine spiked before Romanov could even answer the question.

"I swear to God I will kill you!"

* * *

"It's encrypted, we can't get through. He's using the highest levels of protection." The tech team told Skye as she sat down

"Easy as 1-2-3." Skye said as she tapped away at the keyboard. Within minutes she had cracked the encryption and shown up some of Fury's finest tech heads.

They stood there with their mouths hitting the floor.

* * *

"So how are you finding your internship?" Fury asked Amber and Kain.

"I've realised I know absolutely nothing about being in the field" Amber admitted.

"Yeah, we've got a long way to go before we're anywhere near as good as those guys. At least we enter at level 1." Kain agreed.

"Skye is a level 1 agent" Fury told them. Their faces dropped.

"Have you learned anything else?"

"Don't give Ward or Romanov a gun when they're bored." Kain deadpanned.

"Yeah, we learned that your upper level agents are completely crazy. The things they do in their downtime. I mean we heard the rumours coming out of the academy, but seeing it is something else."

"I've learned not to take things at face value" Amber admitted, remembering what they had told her about May.

"I've learned not to hit on a woman who tells you to back off and she's seeing someone." Kain also admitted, remembering the punch Skye had given him.

"Sir, may I ask you about plan X and why we don't learn about it in the academy?" Amber asked Fury.

"It's a level eight specialist protocol. Anyone under level eight is not authorised to use it."

* * *

"WARD, ROMANOV!" They heard Coulson shout. Skye looked up from the computer and Fitz-Simmons even poked their head out of a door to see Ward burst through a door closely followed by Romanov. Coulson, who is not as fit and limber as the two agents brought up the rear.

"You're so dead Grant Ward." she said chasing him. She finally caught him and ran at him. She didn't care that he had a massive cut across his throat. She jumped, locked his head with her thighs and used them to throw him down, except he was quicker than she expected and locked his arms around her thighs and ended up rolling and pinning her to the floor, using his weight around her middle and his hands to pin her arms.

The Hub erupted in applause. They didn't know what had happened to make her chase him, but they had never seen Romanov get pinned by _anyone _before.

"Coulson, I thought I gave you these two to stop this from happening?" pulling Ward off Romanov.

"I am so sorry, Sir. They were quicker than me."


	30. Chapter 30

"I don't like it." Fury told Coulson as they were all winding down at the Hub's bar. Romanov and Ward were sat, alone at the bar, talking.

"You don't, Sir?"

"They are too quiet. Quietness means bad things with those two."

"Want me to find out what they are up to Sir?"

"I want to know what they are planning."

Coulson grabbed Skye's arm as she walked past.

"Agent's Romanov and Ward are making Director Fury nervous. Go find out what they are planning."

* * *

"Yeah that's a problem." Ward admitted to Romanov.

"So what do we do about it?" She asked.

"Do about what?" Skye asked.

"Fitz and Simmons" Romanov told her.

"What about them?"

"You mean to tell me you haven't noticed? He's completely into her." Ward told her.

"And we all know that she's still at the just friends' stage." Romanov finished.

"You two are right, that is a problem. But I would have thought the May issue would have been a bigger one." Skye pointed out, reaching towards the bar for Wards drink.

"What May issue?" He asked her confused.

"She's completely into Coulson."

Romanov nearly choked on her drink.

"What?" She croaked out while Ward hit her on the back to stop the choking.

"You mean you two super spies haven't noticed?"

"What is there to notice?"

"How are you two the best spies in the agency?" Skye asked them, rolling her eyes "there are subtle glances at his back, lingering looks that she avoids when he turns to look at her. And, when I saw him sewing up that cut the other month you could cut the tension with a knife."

"Do you think Coulson knows?" Romanov asked

"Doubt it. He's only got eyes for the cellist. Besides, May won't admit her feelings to anyone, let alone Coulson. Especially after everything that's happened."

Romanov looked at Skye, who shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'why not' before she turned to the bartender.

"Barkeep! A bottle of your finest Tequila please!"

* * *

Director Fury watched what was happening with mild interest. He saw Skye walk over to Ward and Romanov. He saw her tell them something that made Romanov choke. He saw her get a bottle of something and grab Simmons attention at the pool table. He saw Simmons tap Amber on the shoulder and then grab May's arm. He saw May put her hand in her pocket and pull out what looked like her room key. He saw her walk over to Ward, take his hand and put the room key in it.

"I thought Ward was with Skye?" he asked Coulson, very confused.

"He is; they got married in Asgard. Why do you ask?"

"Because agent May has just given him her room key. Wait, what. Did you just say Ward and Skye got married in Asgard?"

"Erm..."

"Coulson?"

"Yes, Sir. I did. It was a shock to us too."

"So why would May give Ward her room key."

"Girl's night." Coulson said, flashing back to the chaotic scene he walked in on last year in Ward's bedroom.

"Girl's night?" Fury asked, still a little confused as to what was happening, as all of the female agents (and Amber) walked out of the door to the accommodation block.

* * *

The girls settled themselves on Wards bed. Skye lined the shot glasses up and Romanov poured them.

"Consider this Mrs. Ward's hen party!" She announced, holding her glass up.

"Cheers!" They all said, raising a toast.

"Right. Down to business!" Skye announced "nothing said in this room goes out of it."

"Wait, before we do anything, we need to initiate the newest member of the group into it."

"What does that involve?" Amber asked, nervously.

"A dare." Simmons answered. After all they had all done one.

"A dare? Is that it?"

"Yes. But don't forget who you're in a room with."

Amber looked around. She was in a room with two high level Agents, one sweet, if slightly naive scientist and Skye, a junior agent who could put many higher ranked agents to shame. To top it all off they were all crazy!

"So what did you guys do?"

"I left a pair of knickers in Ward's hotel room."

"I walked up to Ward and kissed him in front of everyone. It was before we admitted we had feelings for each other and we weren't allowed to be a we."

"I used Ward's toothbrush in front of him."

"I stripped for Fitz." May added with a shudder, the horror still playing in her mind.

Any hope Amber was clinging onto of her dare being an easy one was just shattered.


	31. Chapter 31

Amber walked out into the middle of the Hub and removed her clothes. She stood up tall and plucked up all of her courage before starting:

_"Half a pound of tupenny rice,_

_Half a pound of treacle,_

_That's the way the money goes,_

_Pop! goes the weasel_."

The entire hub was now watching this crazy intern. They had no idea what on earth she was doing. Well, Ward, Fitz and Coulson knew. Amber continued:

"_Every night when I get home,_

_The monkey's on the table,_

_Take a stick and knock it off,_

_Pop! Goes the weasel." _She finished before scooping up her clothes and sprinting back to the others.

They quickly headed back to Ward's room before Fury caught them.

"Well done. You are now officially one of us!" Skye told her, plonking herself down on the bed.

"Will that stop the hazing and the pranks?"

"No. Those will happen until you graduate."

"Ok. So what's the deal here then?"

"You can talk about anything, ask anyone anything, but the answers must be truthful and honest and under no circumstances will anything said in this room leave it."

"May I go first?" Amber asked

"Sure"

"What happens if you do say something to someone?"

"If you think Pop! goes the weasel was bad."

"So May, this has been bugging me for a while. How do you know anything about Ward's, you know, if he's was seeing and is now married to Skye?"

"We don't talk about that."

"I thought nothing was off the cards?"

May shot a glance at Skye.

"Fine. We got drunk one night and we ended up in bed. It happened a few times. The sex, not the drinking."

"Friends with benefits."

"Then we got a visit from an Asgardian Sorcerer" Simmons chipped in.

"Wait, is that the one who could alter the will of men with her touch."

"That's the one. She said some things to me that were kinda of like a slap in the face, and I realised that he was in love with someone. Took me a few days to work out who though." May finished, looking at Skye.

"Weren't you mad at him?"

"Yes and no. It was just the physical act, but it hurt a little that he couldn't talk to me about it and I had to hear it from _her_. It took us a while to go back to being just friends."

"A while? It took the two of you to get locked inside a pyramid for nine hours, which nearly killed you both, to work it out."

"Thankyou, Skye."

"As we said. We don't talk about it."

"I'm understanding that now!"

"So you still havn't told Hawkeye you love him?" May rounded on Romanov.

"We, but. I did!" She protested.

"Natasha Romanov, all you have done to him is kiss him, which, by the fact that he is kissing you too is a pretty good indicator that he at least likes you too."

"Do you actually understand how difficult this is for me?"

"Hey, give her time. When you're Kevlar it takes time to process."

"Skye, what aren't you telling us about you and Ward?"

"When all of you guys thought we were having sex,"

"Which you assured us you weren't, did you lie?"

"No, we didn't lie. We weren't having sex at that point, we were just having the occasional..."

"Tonsil tennis session?" May finished for her, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah. Anyway, enough about me. Simmons, same question as last year?"

"There is nothing going on between me and Fitz."

"So what about you Amber? Any special guy in your life?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. It's complicated."

"We've had co-workers, traitors and professors, how complicated is it?"

"I was so stupid. I had a really good thing going with a guy at Phys Acc, but when we found out I would be here instead of him he went a little crazy and I left him. I don't think that he'd got over his ex either."

"Let me stop you right there. If this guy is still mooning over his ex leave him be. There is nothing worse than unrequited love." May told her.

Skye and Romanov looked at her.

"You speaking from experience there May?" Romanov asked her. May blushed a little.

"How the hell does she know?" She thought

"Come on. I've seen the way you look at him." Skye pushed.

"What Skye too? How did they find out?" May continued to think.

"Oh my God! Who?" Simmons asked.

"There's no one" May protested, but the blush gave her away.

"Come on. Who is it?" Amber asked looking to Romanov and Skye for the answer, clearly they had picked up on something that she hadn't.

"Whatever" May said, finally having got a handle on her emotions.

"Seriously, May who... Oh my God!"

Simmons finally realised she knew who it was.

"May, exactly how long have you had a thing for Coulson?"

Amber spat her drink out all over Skye.

"Busted." Romanov told her.

"I don't know. It just kinda crept up on me. He was stitching my shoulder up after Morocco and I don't know, I guess I felt something." May told them, finally giving in.

There was a knock on the door. Skye went to answer it.

"Hey!" She brightened a little when she saw Ward. She stepped out of the room to kiss him.

"Hey yourself!" He replied to her when she pulled away from him.

"You know May gave you her room key for a reason."

"I know, but I need to talk to Nat. There's a problem with baby sis at Phys Acc."


	32. Chapter 32

When they saw the girls leaving Ward, Hawkeye, Fitz, Coulson and Kain all stayed in the bar. They took seats far enough away to be able to hear each other talking.

"I think it's time we toasted to Mr. Grant Ward, newlywed" Hawkeye announced, holding up his glass.

"I can't believe Nat told you."

"What I want to know is why Nat kissed you?" Coulson asked Hawkeye.

"Why does Nat ever do anything?"

"Stop trying to change the subject, Clint and answer the question."

"I don't know why she kissed me."

"I do." Ward confessed.

The other four turned to look at him.

"Come on. If you guys don't know, I'm sure as hell not going to tell you."

It was then that Amber marched into the middle of the Hub and stripped, sang Pop! goes the weasel and disappeared.

"What the hell was that about?" Kain asked.

"Initiation. If you wanna hang out with our girls then you have to do a dare." Ward told them, remembering the previous year.

"They usually choose things that they know you fear." Fitz added, also remembering the previous year and May's striptease.

"Like what?" Hawkeye asked.

"Kissing Ward in front of everyone, Stripteases." Coulson responded.

"Don't forget Simmons leaving her pants in my room and Nat used my toothbrush." Ward added.

"That'll be Nat's influence."

They heard Fury shout for Coulson.

"Sorry guys, I'll be back soon."

"So why did Nat kiss him?" Kain asked, thinking he may get more information without the A/C nearby.

"Because she lost Roulette." Ward told them, winking at Hawkeye. They both knew why Romanov had kissed him, but both Hawkeye and Romanov were stubborn enough not to talk about the big red elephant in the room that began with a 'L'.

"Intern, I do believe it's your round!" Hawkeye told Kain, who headed off to the bar.

"So why the hell did Nat kiss him?"

"She's loved him for years. Hides it very well. The question is does he feel the same?" Ward said, looking at Hawkeye.

"I'm going to go help the intern." He stood up but Ward grabbed his arm and pulled him back down into the armchair.

"Not so fast chuckles. If you're in love with her you need to tell her, before it's too late and she finally moves on. First step is admitting it to your friends."

Hawkeye knew Ward was manipulating him. Ward was, after all, one of the best at it.

"Fine. When I'm with her I can't stop thinking about just walking up to her and kissing her, a bit like the way she kissed me."

"Keep with the kissing, the rest will come."

"I just wish Simmons would kiss me in any way."

Ward looked at Hawkeye. They both knew Simmons wasn't into Fitz, but how to tell him without destroying him. They sat either side of Fitz on the sofa.

"I don't think Simmons feels the same way you feel about her buddy." Ward said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Sure, It's obvious, but I can't help the way I feel about her."

"What you need is to start seeing someone." Ward told him

"We live on a plane." Fitz reminded him.

Kain came back with their drinks at the same time Coulson came back over to the group.

"Ward, a word?"

Ward followed Coulson to the bar.

"What's up?"

"It's TIlly. The principle's told us she's gone a little crazy. She punched a student."

"What does Fury want me to do?"

"He wants you to go get her and bring her back here."

"I'll go get Nat."


	33. Chapter 33

It was three in the morning and Ward, Romanov and the rest of the team walked through the doors of Phys Acc. Fury had only wanted it to be Ward and Romanov but the whole team, in varying degrees of alcoholic states had begged to go too until Director Fury caved in.

"Agent Coulson. I was told Fury would be sending me someone to help me with this little problem. Shall we speak in my office?"

"Certainly. Agent Ward will be joining us." Coulson informed the principle, to his utmost horror.

They followed the principle to his office. He gestured for Coulson and Ward to take a seat.

"This young woman who Director Fury made stay here for her own protection is a nightmare. She hit one of my students and tore through my security staff, who, as you are both aware are level five foot soldiers."

"I understand. Has anyone tried asking her why?"

"We would if we could find her."

"What?"

"We're certain she's still on the grounds, but where we don't know."

Coulson glanced at Ward who nodded his head back.

"What do you expect us to do about her?"

"Tell me who she is _and_ why she's here, before locating her and removing her from the building."

"So you don't want a lot then." Ward said sarcastically.

"Who is she? I know you know because you were the ones who requested she stay here."

"It's better for your heart if you don't know!"

* * *

It didn't take Ward long to find Tilly In fact, he had literally just got back to the Atrium. She had clearly been spotted somewhere she shouldn't have been and was being chased by some of the guards. She had come flying out of a door and ran towards him. She was that focussed on getting away from the guards that she didn't spot Ward's arm in front of her. He pulled her into a bear grip while Coulson waved the guards off. Tilly, still not realising it was Ward, continued to struggle, Wards grip getting tighter and tighter around her chest until she could barely breathe. She stopped struggling, and upon realising the arms around her were her brothers she broke down into tears. Ward felt her knees get weak but instead of letting her fall he held onto her.

Tilly managed to control herself long enough to turn around so that she was facing him, before burying her head into his neck. He scooped her up and carried her to a place he knew would calm her down.

The roof.

She had stopped crying, so he put her down and climbed onto the ledge. She climbed up next to him and snuggled into his side. He put his arm around her.

"What the hell happened?"

"Nothing!"

"Nothing? Then why am I here in the middle of the night?"

"The principle is a wuss?"

"Yes, but he said you hit a student here?"

Tears started falling down Tilly's face again and Ward wiped them away.

"I did. His name was Harvey. We met at university three years ago. We got together and one day about two years ago he told me that he was leaving me and the school to go backpacking."

"You didn't believe him?"

"After living with you and Nat for 13 years you kinda pick up on stuff."

"So what happened then?"

"He saw me waiting for a first year martial arts class."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing."

"Til, nothing makes you hit a guy, breaking his nose in three places? I don't believe it."

"He accused me of being a stalker and that I had tracked him here. He told me that our time together was fun but he had bigger fish to fry"

"So you hit him?"

"Not at that point. I was trying to do what you told me and keep my head down."

"So when did you hit him?"

"He saw me in the martial arts class. Fury asked me not to show my skills off. He told me it might make the principle poorly. Harvey was imitating my punching technique and making it, me, look silly. He saw me later that day. We ended up alone. He asked me if I wasn't here for him, what was I here for. So I told him that I was here under protective custody of S.H.I.E.L.D and he laughed at me. I lost my temper and punched him. But a guard saw and I panicked. I ran. Knocked anyone out that tried to stop me. Then I hid, until a guard found me and forced me out of hiding. Then I ran into you."

"Sweetie, come here." Ward said to her, pulling her into a hug.

By the time Tilly pulled away from Ward it was starting to get light. Tilly suddenly noticed the long, ear to ear gash to Ward's throat.

"What happened?"

"Garotte. It scabbed over but Nat tried to kill me yesterday and she opened it up again."

"A garrotte?"

"Don't ask." Ward told her jumping off the ledge.

"You and Skye still going ok?" She asked as he helped her down.

"Actually Tilly, I need to tell you something."

"She's not pregnant is she?"

"No. Not pregnant. But we did get married."

"And you didn't invite me?"

"It was a spur of the moment thing. No one was invited, not even Nat."

* * *

Ward led Tilly back down to the Atrium. He didn't know if the principle had removed the men looking for her but he knew that she would be safe with him.

"What happens now?" She asked him

"Now, we go in there and you hold your head up high. I'm proud of you Tilly. So what, you made one mistake, what are you going to do, run and hide in a cave for the rest of your life?"

"Sounds tempting."

They made it to the door that would lead them out to the large open space.

"I can't do it!"

"Yes, you can." Ward told her taking her hand.

Together they entered the Atrium. Ward led her over to the team, who were stood with the principle. Romanov held her arms out to Tilly and she ran into them.

"You ok?" Romanov asked her, giving her bear hug and a kiss on the head.

"I'm fine."

TIlly moved onto Skye and gave her a hug, which Skye wasn't expecting.

"Congratulations" Was all she said.

As a group they started to make their way out of the Atrium to go back to the Hub. Tilly suddenly stopped.

"Go on, I'll catch up" She said to Ward.

After what she had told him last night he elected to stay and keep an eye on her. He saw her walk up to the principle.

"I am so sorry for causing you trouble. I also wanted to thank you for keeping me safe. I know my brother appreciates it." She told him, holding out her hand.

"Your Grant Ward's sister?" He asked, shaking Tilly's hand, bewildered. At least it explained her skills.

"He didn't tell you?"

"No. But now I see the resemblance."

"Thank you again, and I hope to see you next year!"

Tilly smiled and set off towards Ward.

"Hey buttmuncher, principle finally kicked you out?" A tall boy, second year by the looks of him, shouted at her, his friends snickering

Ward seeing the hurt in Tilly's eyes set off towards him. As he passed her she grabbed hold of his arm.

"Don't hurt him, you could get into trouble."

"I won't. I promise."

She released his arm and he continued to the boy and his friends. When he got there they recognised him and, like most Phys Acc students they felt like they were in the presence of a celebrity.

"You Harvey?" he asked the tall boy.

"Yeah" was his reply, feeling pleased that this famed level eight agent knew his name.

"So much as look at her again and a broken nose will be the last of your problems. Do You understand?" Ward growled at Harvey.

"I understand" Harvey whispered trembling, not knowing that Ward was her pissed off brother.

"Good. Now go to class like a good baby." He said before walking off. They saw him reach Tilly, give her a hug and they rejoined the rest of the team, who were waiting for them at the doors.


	34. Chapter 34

**A/N: Again I'm sorry for the delay in updating. I've got a lot going on right now, and I'm running out of pranks and cases!**

**I don't like what's happening in the show at the moment, and I have to say it. I don't like or trust Tripp. It really wouldn't surprise me if he is a HYDRA sleeper the Ward doesn't know about.**

**Enough of my ranting: here it is, and I'm sorry it's so short. Tilly on the 'bus...**

No one knew how she was doing it. All they knew was that she moved quietly. Very quietly. She even made Romanov jump.

"Jesus Tilly. I swear I'm going to put a bell around your neck!" Ward told her after she had crept up on him, making him jump and spill beer down his shirt.

"You'd have to catch me first." Tilly retorted, backing away. She knew she was poking a tiger with a _very_ short stick. The last time she had said that to him, he had caught her and tied her up for three days by her ankles.

Ward suddenly put his beer down and chased her. She ducked and weaved and swung out of his grasp. They were running down the supply corridor when a door opened and hit Ward in the face, knocking him backwards and making his nose bleed.

Knowing their fight was over, TIlly grabbed a towel and pressed it to his nose.

"You ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine."

"That looks bad. I'll go get Simmons" Amber, who had been in the stores for a board game and was the one who opened the door in the first place, told him.

Tilly helped him to his feet. Then he got her in a headlock and escorted her to the lab.

"Right. I think we are going to have to sort out some rules" He said to her, still dabbing his nose.

"Rules are good."

"Ok. _Stop_ sneaking up on people just because you can. It's not nice, but congrats on making Nat jump. That was a work of art."

"Why thankyou." She replied with an evil grin.

"Second. Do not tell them anything about me. There are certain things they still don't know."

"Like the whole blue eyes thing?"

"They know about that, they don't know about the washing powder." He told her, lowering his voice. They were on the 'bus, you never knew who was watching, or listening.

"Wait, you have told them all that you can move objects with your mind but you haven't told them about washing powder? How the hell have you pulled that one off?"

"They think I'm an OCD robot that has to have things just right, which means I have to keep using the same washing powder"

"You are an OCD robot."

"Thirdly..."

He trailed off as Simmons came in to look at his nose, which was still weeping blood.

"Don't mind me. Keep talking." Simmons told them, checking Ward's nose.

"You were saying?" Tilly asked him as she turned to leave the room.

"Ignore next week, or I will kill you, and Tilly?" She turned to look at him "the interns are fair game."

A smile crept across Tilly's face. It was the smile that said 'this could be fun'.


	35. Chapter 35

Before they left to pick Tilly up Fury had given them some instructions to follow. Hawkeye was to be taken back to Prague and Romanov was to be taken to England. Fury had forgotten to smooth things over with Tilly's university and as a result they had reported her missing. It was making Global headlines. This meant they were all going to be on the 'bus for a few more days.

Amber and Kain had woken up the morning after the rules had been laid down to find they were sealed in their bunks with cling film. They only way out was going to be with a knife, which they didn't have.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" Amber yelled.

"What the hell is going on?" Kain asked at the top of his voice.

Tilly took pity on them and used the kitchen knife she had been using to cut a slit big enough for them to get through. Ward was sat watching her, his smile hidden in the corners of his mouth. Skye was sat next to him, head on his shoulder. It looked like she was crying, when in reality she was in fits of silent laughter. May was sat eating her breakfast in silence, amusement evident in her eyes. Romanov and Hawkeye were sat on the sofa, legs and bodies entwined, making the most of the last few days they had together and were chuckling at the interns fighting their way out of their bunks. Coulson came out of his office to find the interns half hanging out of their doors. He decided he didn't want to know any the details. He also knew that Ward, Romanov and Tilly were behind the bunks, even though the latter was doing an excellent job of hiding it.

"'fess up. Who did it?" Kain asked, annoyed

If he was expecting any of them to crack he was disappointed. He had clearly forgot that he was on a bus with two master assassins who were also pretty damn good spies, two level eight specialists who Skye refers to as robots who can't show emotion, two scientists who were almost incapable of coming up with the prank, one computer expert who was starting to learn when to keep her mouth shut and remain emotionless and one civilian who they didn't really know much about, except that she was trained by Ward and Romanov so she also knew when to keep her face neutral and her mouth shut.

"Wasn't me" They all said, straightening their faces.

"GAHH!" Kain exclaimed in annoyance before storming off.

* * *

Later that afternoon Tilly and Skye were sat in the lounge. Tilly was flicking through her diary and Skye was working on a project her and Ward had a silly idea for the previous night.

"Crap!" Skye heard Tilly say.

She looked up to find her flicking between two pages of her diary. Skye knew that action. She had used it herself a few years before. It was that action of a penny dropping, and usually the penny isn't a good one.

"You ok?" Skye asked her new sister in law casually.

"Yeah. No. I've just realised I have two papers to write. Both due in tomorrow, no late entries are permitted."

Skye let out a sigh of relief. The last time she had used that action it had involved peeing on a stick. This was good. This could be sorted.

"What are your papers on?"

"Structural bioinformatics and its impact on biomedical science and something to do with bioengineering. Four thousand words each."

They were a lot of long, complicated words that Skye didn't understand, but she knew Fitz-Simmons would.

"What happens if you don't hand them in?"

"I fail my degree." Tilly was good at hiding her emotions, but Skye could see the fear in her eyes.

"Wait here." She told Tilly and headed out to the lab.

"Skye. What can we do for you?"

"Tilly has a small issue of two university papers being due tomorrow in areas I can't pronounce. If she doesn't hand something in she will fail her degree."

"Of course we can help." Simmons replied quickly. After all, Tilly is Ward's sister. That makes her part of the family.

"We can?" Fitz asked, puzzled.

* * *

Ward, Romanov, Hawkeye and the interns were all working out in the workout room. Amber and Kain had begged Ward and Romanov to physically train them since the Covenant mission. Kain was sparring with Hawkeye and Amber was sparring with Romanov. Ward, who was still nursing the gouge to his throat, was instructing the two interns on the best techniques to use. He saw Amber jab a kick at Romanov who deflected it easily. He saw her retract her leg and regain her balance. The third time he saw her do it he stopped her.

"Why do you step back after a jab kick?"

"It's how I was taught. Jab a kick to knock the enemy off and then regain your balance before attacking again."

"You're going to get killed like that" Romanov told her. Amber just looked at her.

Kain and Hawkeye stopped sparring so he could also benefit from this lesson.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Ward stood in front of Romanov in a sparring position.

"Hand to hand combat isn't a choreographed routine. You need to do what feels natural. If a move feels like it's going to be wrong then it usually is."

He and Romanov started sparring, slowly, so that he could still teach and not rip the stitches to his throat.

"Movements need to be fluid and move from one into the other." He continued before rallying off a series of moves on Romanov.

She deflected them with ease as they were still moving slow to demonstrate a point. He threw a jab kick at her and paused as it brushed her chest.

"If you throw a jab kick you are off balance, yes. But if you then retract your leg and plant it down in its original position"He completed the moves slowly as he spoke "then in the split second you are completely off balance a decent opponent will have your legs out from under you before you realise it."

To prove a point, Romanov took his legs out at the exact time his balance was off. He landed on his back with a sickening thump, which got the attention of the people in the Lab. Romanov held her hand out to help Ward to his feet.

"What do you recommend then?" Amber asked him.

"Why don't you look and tell me." He said to her, getting into position with Romanov again. He held his leg very, very straight at her chest.

"What is the best way out of this position?" he asked them.

The interns stood looking for a moment.

"Plant your lead and roundhouse." Kain piped up.

"Show me." Ward said, lowering his leg and moving out of the way.

Kain stepped up to Romanov and aimed a jab kick at her. She didn't even flinch when he connected his foot to her chest. He stomped the foot he had used to kick her with to the floor and snapped his other leg around in a sloppy attempt at a roundhouse kick.

"How the hell are these two final year students?" Hawkeye whispered into Ward's ear.

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure even Skye could take them." He replied looking through the window at her, recognising the look on her face. The scientists were up to something with Tilly and Skye was clearly feeling like a spare part. He walked over to the door and opened it.

"Skye. You fancy a workout?" He asked.


	36. Chapter 36

Ward was right. Skye easily took Amber and Kain. It was a new experience for her. Usually she just fought Ward on their own, which then usually turned into a make-out session on the mats. This was the first time she had been up against two opponents, whose skills she was unsure of. Romanov and Hawkeye were stood on the sidelines looking impressed. This girl would make a fine agent if she kept up her training with Ward. Ward simply stood on the sidelines, assessing his student, making a mental note on where she could improve her technique.

Within minutes both interns were bleeding. Skye tended the cuts on Amber while Hawkeye tended to Kain.

Realising this session was over the group headed into the Lab to find Simmons, Fitz and Tilly frantically researching something.

"What's up?" Ward asked.

"University papers, due tomorrow" Tilly answered, not looking at him, knowing that as smart as her brother is, he won't be able to help.

* * *

Tilly strolled into the Lounge a few hours later, pale and exhausted.

"Get your papers finished?" Ward asked her.

"Yeah. I don't think I would have managed it if it weren't for Fitz-Simmons."

"You email it or is Nat handing it in for you tomorrow when we drop her off?"

"I emailed it over. I apologised for disappearing. Told them someone was coming to explain everything and that I was safe, but out of the country."

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Feeling the need to unwind though."

May, who was sat reading overheard this conversation, and having been in a similar position herself knew the perfect solution.

Mayhem.

She put her book down and moved closer to Ward and Tilly.

"We could pull something?"

"Yeah. But what to pull?"

* * *

The following day they dropped Hawkeye off at the airport in Prague and headed to drop Romanov in England. They decided to spend some time in London as they needed to refuel and restock before heading back towards the Hub. Skye and Simmons went shopping for food and toiletries, keeping a special eye out for products that Tilly had requested.

They picked everything up on the list and they reached the last item: washing powder.

"Hey they don't have the robots special request. Which one do you think we should go for?" Skye asked Simmons.

"I think we should use this one for now. It smells nice."

"He'll kill us. You know what he's like."

"We can just tell him they have a new scent out?"

* * *

Ward, Tilly and May headed to a 'special' shop Tilly had found when she was in London one day. The shop was full of magic tricks and pranks to pull on people. Things like: Bugs in ice cubes, rubber, yet realistic looking spiders, cracked window stickers. They were in their element.

* * *

Coulson drove Romanov to the nearest police station to smooth over Tilly's disappearance. "Don't forget to smooth things over with her professors and tell them the company line."

"Yes Coulson. Tilly is in protective custody after threats were made against her life. She is perfectly safe" She recited as she closed the door to Lola.

* * *

Fitz-Simmons were collared into sightseeing by the interns. They decided that due to their time limit it would be quicker to get a tour bus round London.

"Get a picture!" Amber and Kain were yelling at each other when they came to points of interest, such as the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.

"I got a picture of Big Ben!" Amber said cheerfully.

"No you didn't." Fitz told her, peeking over her shoulder.

"It's right there. See." She retaliated, showing the picture more clearly to Fitz.

"Big Ben isn't the tower; it's the bell that rings." Simmons explained.

"Oh"


	37. Chapter 37

Everybody gathered for breakfast the next day. The interns came out of their bunks scratching everywhere.

When they got back on the bus the previous day May and Tilly had provided a distraction in the form of sparring with each other, while Ward spiked the interns' bunks with itching powder.

To everyone's amusement Tilly actually beat May, who was impressed. She had sparred with both Ward and Romanov, and while she lost more times than she won, Tilly fought using both of their styles, so it was difficult to predict what was going to happen next.

"Ok. Who the hell spiked my bunk with itching powder?" Amber asked as she used her nails to scratch a particularly painful itch.

Unfortunatley Ward came out of his and Skye's bunk at that precise moment. To everyone's surprise, he was also scratching his body.

"It was you!" Amber nearly screamed at him, realising he'd caught himself with the itching powder. The face he pulled made him look like a deer in headlights.

As her and Kain went to shower off the itching powder they walked past Ward and punched him in the shoulder.

* * *

Skye wasn't sure what woke her first, the fact that Ward's body felt as if it were on fire or whether it was that fact that he was wheezing. As he let out a shiver Skye suddenly realised that things weren't right. She got up and turned the light on. As she looked back to check on him she nearly screamed.

There was a rash covering most of Ward's body. In some places, where it was obviously worse the rash had been opened and was seeping small amounts of blood. What scared her more was that his eyes were half open.

Skye dragged him out of the bed and hauled him onto her shoulder. She tried to help him towards the showers but he was too heavy and that out of it that she could barely move him a metre.

As she dropped him the door to Simmons bunk opened.

"Skye. What on earth are you and Ward doing?" She asked sleepily. Clearly Skye hadn't been very quiet when trying to move Ward. She caught sight of Ward on the floor and seeing the sore, red skin covering his body she bent down to touch him.

"Jees, he's burning up. How long has he been like this?" She asked Skye.

"He was warmer than usual when we went to bed, I woke up and he was on fire. I was trying to get him down to the shower to cool him down before coming for you." Skye said, tears in her eyes.

Simmons looked at her and grabbed Ward under one of his armpits. Skye mirrored her on the other side of him. Together they managed to half carry half drag him to the shower room.

They placed him on the floor of the shower in a sitting position and turned it on so that it was lukewarm.

"Why don't we turn it onto cold?" Skye asked, both her and Simmons keeping Ward's body upright in the shower

"Cold could send him into shock. Besides, with the temperature of his body as it is this will feel icy" She replied.

"What happened? Is it the itching powder?" Skye asked, tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

"It definitely looks like a dermal allergic reaction. But I don't know what to."

"What do we do?"

"Cool his temperature and get anti-histamine into his system. I'm going to go and prepare a bed for him. Skye, make sure he doesn't drown in the shower."

* * *

Coulson woke early and decided he would have a work out. It had been a while. He dressed and sneaked into the lounge. It was 4am so he didn't want to rouse anyone. As he approached Ward and Skye's bunk he noticed the light was on. He didn't see that Simmons bunk was open and empty as he walked past it. As he got closer to the light he notice the door was open and the bed sheets had been dragged to the door.

"They better not have been having sex" Coulson thought as he walked up to the door to catch them.

When he got there he noticed that they were both missing.

"They can't have got very far" he continued to think as he set off looking for them.

As he passed the showers he heard Skye's voice:

"Maybe we should go wake Tilly. She'll know what this is."

"We could. But I think we need to get him to the med room and stabilise him first."

Coulson, getting worried opened the door to the shower room, jaw dropping at a scene he didn't expect to see. Simmons and Skye in the shower, propping a barely conscious Ward up, panic on their faces.

Between the three of them they managed to carry Ward to the medical room, where they placed cooling blankets on him and started him on oxygen and a drip.

* * *

By the time they had stabilised Ward the occupants on the bus were staring to wake up for breakfast.

May immediately noticed Ward and Simmons bunks were empty. This got her worried. Simmons was usually the last to stir. She wanted to go look for her, but there was a beep from the tablet she used to control the plane. They were approaching the Hub.

"Guy's, were half an hour from landing" she told them, heading to the cockpit.


	38. Chapter 38

As they landed Coulson appeared and, rather unusually, shepherded them off the plane using one of the doors. He didn't think Ward would want them to see him the way he was, and using the cargo ramp would lead them all straight past him.

Coulson grabbed Tilly's arm before she left and told her to stay.

After everyone had disembarked Coulson took Tilly to his office.

"What's up Coulson? Am I in trouble?"

"Why would you be in trouble?"

"For the itching powder. I was in on it."

"I know and no, you're not in trouble for that. I need to talk to you about your brother."

"Grant? What's he done?"

"Nothing. Does he have any allergies that I need to be aware of?"

"Why do you ask?"

She was good. The only indicator that she knew something was the same hint of a blush on the top of her ears, that Ward has.

"He's downstairs in a medical bay unconscious."

Tilly's face dropped.

"Washing powder. He's highly allergic to washing powder. There's one he can use without itching and there are three that will put him in hospital" She whispered, dropping into a chair, tears rolling down her face.

Coulson raced from the room to Simmons in the medical suite.

* * *

May was getting more worried by the second. Coulson had insisted that they used the exit doors. They never used the doors. The cargo ramp was easier. When she had left the 'bus she saw the medical team board. This got her more worried. She hadn't seen Simmons, Skye or Ward all morning.

So she did what any good spy would do. She spied.

She climbed back onto the 'bus using the stairs. She saw Coulson leave his office and followed him. He led her to the medical suite. She could see him stood with his arms around Skye, who was sobbing. Simmons was stood off to one side explaining something to the medical team. Then one of them moved and she saw it. Ward was laid on one of the beds, tube sticking out of his throat, skin red and angry.

For the first time in a long time, Melinda May let her emotions show. She backed into the Lab doors and sank to the floor, tears glistening in her eyes. One of the strongest men she knew was in trouble. Big trouble.

An arm suddenly snaked around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

* * *

Fitz was worried about Simmons. He hadn't seen her leave the plane. He saw May creep back onto the 'bus and followed. He made it to the lab doors when he saw her back up against them and collapse into a heap. He walked over to her and he saw the same thing that she had just seen. Ward was in danger. He sat beside May and put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his chest.

They both started crying.

Tilly walked into the Lab and saw them sat on the ground. Fitz, who heard her enter the room, opened his other arm to her and she sank into the other side of his chest.

Around half an hour later Coulson came out of the medical suite, and on seeing the rest of his team cuddled together on the floor of the Lab, evidence in their eyes that they had all been crying, decided not to hide it from them any longer.

"Ward had a severe allergic reaction to something called 'Poly carboxylate'. It's an ingredient common, in varying concentrations, in most laundry detergents."

He saw the looks on the faces of the team. They didn't want to know that. They wanted to know how he was and if he was going to be alright.

"He'll be fine in a couple of days. They have given him anti-histamine and some other medication which has cleared up his breathing. The tube was taken out ten minutes ago and replaced with an oxygen mask."

May, Fitz and Tilly let out breaths they didn't know they had been holding, while Coulson set off to brief Director Fury.

"We shouldn't discuss this with him. He didn't want you guys to know." Tilly told Fitz and May.

"Why?" May asked, slightly confused.

"He's embarrassed. He can fight the world but washing powder takes him down." Tilly pointed out, while the others smiled, knowing exactly what she meant.

Tilly decided there and then to confess another one of her brother's secrets.

"Did you guys know it's his birthday next Wednesday?"

Fitz and May snapped their necks to look at her.

"I'll guess that's a no then."


	39. Chapter 39

Ward woke up that night to find Skye sat on his bed.

"Where am I?" He asked groggily removing the oxygen mask off his face, the room unfocussed.

"Med suite." She told him.

"What happened?"

"Allergic reaction. I think Coulson said it was to the laundry detergent me and Simmons picked up."

She flung her arms around his neck and cried into his chest.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know! If I had I wouldn't have got it. It's all my fault." Skye started to ramble.

"Skye. Firstly, help me sit up."

She helped arrange the bed so Ward was in a seated position. The room swam for a few seconds before clearing.

"Secondly" he said, cupping her face with his hand "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. If I had been honest about it you would have known not to swap powders on me."

He brushed her tears away with his thumb.

"I'm sorry." He continued.

"Why didn't you tell us, or me?"

"It's slightly embarrassing."

"Why?" Skye asked, before putting on a man's voice, placing her fists on her hips, sticking her chest out and continuing "because I'm Agent Grant Ward. Nothing can hurt me, except laundry detergent."

"Something like that!" He admitted with a smile making Skye laugh. She lent in to kiss him.

"I see you're awake." Simmons said from behind them, trying to ignore what was going on in front of her. Skye moved out of the way so she could assess the patient.

"Yeah. How long was I out?"

"About a day. How do you feel?"

"Honestly?"

"It would be nice."

"Humiliated"

"I meant physically." Simmons said, checking his vital signs.

"I wanna scratch my skin off."

"That'll take a few days to settle down I'm afraid." She informed him, putting the oxygen mask back over his face.

"And you aren't leaving here until your vital statistics have normalised."

"Simmons, come on. Please?"

"No. If you attempt to leave I have authorisation to shoot you with night-night."

"Coulson."

"Fury."

"Fury knows about this?"

"When you didn't show your face at the Hub he got worried" Skye told him from the door.

Ward tried to pull the covers over his head to hide his embarrassment but Simmons stopped him.

"We have rewashed all of your clothes and bedding. We have even rewashed all of Skye's clothes just to be safe."

"Thankyou."

"We also have cream that will need to be applied to the skin irritation twice daily. I'm sure Skye can help you with the areas you can't reach" She told him with a smile.

"You hungry?" Skye asked him, realising that neither of them had eaten at all that day.

"Yeah. A little."

Skye moved into the room and kissed the top of his head.

"I'll go get you something." She told him, silently checking with Simmons that she could.

Simmons closed the door after Skye left. Then she rounded on Ward.

"What the hell were you thinking keeping an allergic reaction out of your file? Do you realise how dangerous that is? You could have died!" She shouted at him.

"Simmons." He tried to reason with her.

"Don't give me any of that macho crap. I don't want to hear it! You scared Skye to death!"

Ward took the oxygen mask back off his face, which calmed Simmons down enough for him to explain.

"It's not in my file because anyone can read it. If S.H.I.E.L.D finds another traitor in their ranks..."

Simmons looked at him like he was crazy, while simultaneously smacking his hand away from the mask and trying to force it back over his mouth.

"Don't look at me like that Simmons. First there was Garrett and all the Hydra agents and then Jefferson." He continued "If they read my file and wanted information from me knowing that washing powder would drive me crazy would make torture unbearable."

Suddenly it dawned on Simmons that he was right. If his allergy to washing powder was in his file, people could use it against him.

"Has anyone ever...?"

"Nat."

"Natasha Romanov has tortured you with washing powder?"

"She wanted to see how well it worked as an instrument of torture and how long it would take to work. If she hadn't been my best friend and on my side I would have spilled my guts to her. That's when we decided to hack S.H.I.E.L.D's files and deleted it."

"You hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D's files?" Simmons asked, slightly impressed.

"Well, Nat did most of it."

"Even if you need to keep it secret from everyone else, I really do need to know. Are you allergic to anything else?"

"No."

"Good."

"It's the itchy and scratchy show" Skye said as she came back through the door, carrying a plate and noticing Ward trying to rub his skin off.

"I can still shoot you." Ward told her with a smile.

Simmons, relatively happy with Ward's progress left to go get some food herself.

"Mmm. That looks good." Ward said as Skye settled herself on his bed, revealing the plate contained a slice of cheesecake.

"Tilly made it before Fury insisted she leave the 'bus." Skye told him, cutting a small piece off and feeding it to Ward.

"Raspberry?"

"And chocolate" Skye confirmed. "Tilly thought it would be nice for your birthday, but it would need eating before then."

Ward nearly choked on his mouthful of cheesecake.

"She told you?"

"No. I found out when I hacked into your file. Don't worry I haven't told the others" She told him with a grin.

Ward relaxed back into the med bed a little.

"I am so sorry I scared you Skye."

"Just don't do it again." She replied, feeding him more cheesecake.

Coulson watched from the Lab. He was happy that everything was going to be alright.


	40. Chapter 40

**A/N: Thanks to Babylove03 and Lazerhawk who helped with the gifts, they were challenging! What do you get a spy who keeps his birthday secret?**

Simmons kept Ward in the medical bay far longer than was necessary. By the time she let him out his rash had nearly cleared.

"I don't know why you and Fury insist on overprotecting me like this" He was complaining to Simmons as they headed upstairs to the lounge.

"Like what?" Simmons asked innocently.

"Keeping me on the inactive list for longer than you need to."

"Oh. That."

Fortunately for her they reached the door to the lounge at that point.

"Surprise!" The entire team yelled as he walked through the door. The reason behind Simmons keeping him in the medical bay for so long now becoming apparent.

"Who was it?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer and pulled his phone out, dialling a number.

"Matilda Grace Ward, you're dead" He said into it before hanging up.

He turned to the rest of the team. When he saw the effort they had made for his birthday he smiled. There was a buffet of food, an amazing cake and a small pile of gifts, none of which he was expecting.

"Thanks guys. But it's too much."

Skye crept up beside him, took his hand and whispered into his ear:

"Stop complaining and enjoy yourself robot." Before she stuck a party hat on his head.

She led him to the bar and handed him a gift. He opened it. A flick knife.

"Tilly by any chance?" he asked with a chuckle.

He slowly made their way through the gifts. They all had a sense of humour to them.

An emergency medical kit from Simmons; May got him some boxing pads. She had heard his reports on the interns being sloppy and got him pads to train them with seen as though they were pestering him to train them. Coulson had got him a tracking device, so then he could let Coulson know if he got lost again. Amber got him a carton of blank bullets. Romanov had left him a copy of War and Peace, so that she could have hers back. Fitz had made him a small, thin silver coloured band with Asgardian type inscriptions on it. Knowing instantly what it was Ward slipped it onto his ring finger of his left hand. Fitz also handed him a watch. It had three knobs around the outside. One for adjusting the time, one worked a light and the other just seemed to be there.

"Pull this knob _only_ when you're in trouble." Was all he told him, pointing to the useless knob.

Kain had got him a new poker set.

"Didn't know what else to get you." He said with a straight face.

"Wow. Thank you all"

"You better blow the candles out before we set fire to the bus."

Tilly had told them that Ward had never had a birthday party before, so they decided to play some children's party games and had prepared pass the parcel, blinds man bluff, pin the tail on the donkey, and musical statues. But being slightly mischievous they added an adult touch to them. Coulson could hear the buzzer of the video feed from his office so he went to answer it.

"Coulson. How's Ward?"

"He's fine. Simmons released him from the med suite earlier. He's downstairs with the guys celebrating his birthday."

_BANG_

"Coulson?"

"I know, Sir. Transfer you to the lounge." Coulson said pressing the transfer button.

As he walked back into the Lounge he thought "Why do they only ever seem to do it when Fury calls?"

He made it to the Lounge to find the team , wearing brightly coloured party hats, playing pass the parcel. To make it more interesting they were all wearing blindfolds. May was in charge of the music and was stopping it on random players. She stopped it on Kain and Coulson saw a flash bang fall out of the wrapping as he opened it. At least he now knew what made the noise. It went off just as Fury came onto the screen.

When the smoke had cleared he could see the young intern had lost his eyebrows.

Being a double celebration for Ward (being released from medical and his birthday) Fury let them have some fun, so he hung up. Coulson breathed a sigh of relief, before rounding on May, who clearly had prepared the game.

"How many more flash bangs are there in that package?"

"That was the last one."

"One for each intern?"

"Something like that."

May, with the help of Coulson, continued to manipulate the game until Ward was sat with a bottle of bubbles in his hand.

"The first person who says anything will end up wearing these" He threatened as they all took off their blindfolds.

"What's next?" Simmons asked.

"Pin the tail on the donkey." May told them. She handed Amber a blindfold and explained the rules "You wear the blindfold, we spin you around three times and you throw the dart and try to hit the donkey on the ass."

They took it in turns to throw the darts. While they were watching the thrower the others were eating the food and having a few drinks. Skye was feeding Ward a sausage roll when May called him forward for his turn. She tied the blindfold looser than she did with everyone else, turned him round and pointed him in the right direction of the donkey. He managed to hit the donkey, which no one else had managed to do until that point, but he hit the back leg, not the tail.

Once everyone had had a go, it transpired Coulson was the most accurate, so he won the small teddy bear May had got as a gimmicky gift for the winner.

Ward elected to sit out of musical statues and control the music. Before he did he went into his bunk and retrieved a small, white feather.

He started the game and paused the music. The first round was easy, Simmons was laughing at Fitz, who had frozen in the most ridiculous position. She went to sit with Ward and referee the game.

As it wore on, it got more and more difficult to tell who was moving and who wasn't. Simmons had taken over the music while Ward moved around to the back of the group. When the music stopped he used his 'special skill' to tickle each member of the team in turn to try and get them to move.

As it turns out, the only one who wasn't remotely ticklish was Amber. She also got a teddy bear.

"I'm going to bed" Skye announced. They all looked at their watches, it was pushing on for time. They played a couple more games and slowly made their way to their bunks.

Ward opened his bunk, expecting Skye to be asleep, so without turning on the light he started removing his clothes. He was looking forward to sleeping in his own bunk for the first time that week. He sat on the bed and realised Skye wasn't in it. He turned the bedside lamp on to find she had written him a note.

_Shower Room_.

Feeling confused Ward dressed and headed to the shower room. He opened the door to find Skye stood before him, wearing the sexiest lingerie he had ever seen on a woman.

"So, are you going to come and unwrap your present?" She asked while biting her lip.

He let out a guttural moan, closed the gap between them, kissed Skye and turned the shower on while she started to remove his clothes.


	41. Chapter 41

"Simmons. What are you doing?" Skye asked her as she saw Simmons throwing everything out of her bunk.

"I can't find _any_ of my underwear. I don't know where it's gone." She replied, throwing her mattress into the lounge.

"What. All of it?"

"Except for what I'm wearing. Yes."

"It can't have gone far"

Skye helped Simmons gut her bunk. They didn't find a single pair of knickers or a bra.

"That's odd. When did you last have them?"

"All of them, in one go? When we moved in."

"Done any laundry in the last couple of days?"

"No."

Skye went off to the laundry room on the 'bus. She looked in the washer and found a single pair of pants at the bottom. She gingerly picked them up and carried them back to the lounge where Simmons was still searching.

"These yours?" She asked Simmons

"Yes. Where did you find them?" She asked, hurrying up to Skye and grabbing them out of her hand.

"Washer. These were the only thing left in there though."

"Damn. I don't know where they could have got to!"

"We'll find them. Let's put your bunk back together."

Silently they replaced everything back into Simmons bunk.

"Lab. Now." Coulson told them as he came into the lounge from his office.

The two girls followed him and settled down on a couple of stools in the Lab.

"We have had reports of people going missing at the local carnival."

"I didn't think we dealt with missing people." Kain asked, wondering where this was going.

"We don't, but they seem to be going on rides and not coming off them."

"Which ride?"

"We aren't sure yet. There is no pattern to the missing people either."

"Are you talking about UC?" Skye asked, getting confused looks from the interns.

"Yes Skye. We are all going undercover to find out which ride and where these people are taken to."

Ward and May groaned they hated carnivals. Especially ones' where people go missing.

"Assignments are as follows. Fitz and Simmons you two will be friends who are in the area as part of a grand tour of America. Amber, Kain. You will be two friends who are at the carnival because you want to create mischief. Ward, Skye, you will be the new couple who only have eyes for each other as you have just started going out. May and I will pose as a couple who have been married for a few years and are spending some time out of the house." Coulson dictated.

Ward couldn't help but notice the look on May's face. Clearly she wouldn't be able to handle a night of being Coulson's wife. He shot a look at Skye, who had noticed the same thing.

"Or..." Skye started to say, trying to help May, but trailed off not knowing what to say.

"Or?" Coulson asked, oblivious to May's reaction or Skye's hesitation.

Skye shot a look at Ward.

"May and I will act like the married couple, Fitz and Simmons the tourist friends, Amber and Kain the young couple in love and you could take Skye as your daughter that you see every other weekend?" He suggested.

When Coulson raised his eyebrows at him he continued "you know that way, all of the bases are covered, friends, love, family."

"That's a better idea" Coulson told him, wondering what had happened between Skye and Ward to make him suggest they split up.

**A/N: I realise having a washing machine on a plane is a stretch _but_ this is S.H.I.E.L.D. Anything is possible!**


	42. Chapter 42

"So sweetheart, what ride do you want to go on first?" Coulson asked Skye.

"I want to go on the Ferris Wheel." She told him playfully as she ran a little in front.

Coulson ran to catch up with her.

"By the way, anyone bringing back one of those giant stuffed teddy bears will be thrown off the 'bus mid flight, followed by the bear. And the bear will be the only one wearing a parachute. Do you all understand?" Coulson informed them all down the microphone.

"Yes, Sir."

"Aye, Capitani."

"Gotcha"

"Good. Then we are understood." He said, looking at Skye as they joined the queue for the Ferris Wheel.

Before they knew it Coulson and Skye were sat in a cart, heading up and away from the ground.

"So what's going on with you and Ward?" He asked her.

"Nothing. We're good. Why'dya ask?"

"He didn't want to work with you."

"It's not that. I think it was more that we work together, sleep together, train together, eat together, it's nice to be apart and working with everyone else for a change."

"Really?"

"Sure. Keeps things interesting."

Coulson could tell she was lying to him. Why and what she was protecting he wasn't sure, but she was definitely hiding something.

* * *

"So why would Ward want to work with May and not Skye?" Fitz asked Simmons, as they approached the coconut toss.

"Drop it Fitz, I'm sure there is a valid reason, to which I know nothing."

"You know something." He paid for their games and they were both given three balls each.

They heard Coulson threaten them all regarding the giant teddy bears and replied with a curt "Yes, Sir." Before throwing the first ball.

"No chance of us winning one anyway" he thought as it missed the coconut by a good foot. Simmons stepped up to take her first go.

"You haven't denied it you know." He said to her as she took aim.

"Denied what Fitz?"

"You know something about Ward and Skye."

"I know nothing." Which was true. Simmons didn't know any of what was going on with Ward and Skye, except that she had helped pick out the lingerie. She had also seen the look on May's face when Coulson told her she was going to be his wife for the night.

They both missed the coconut with all three of their balls, so they moved on.

* * *

"It was weird right?" Amber asked Kain as he pulled her over to a gun range. He picked up a gun, paid the attendant the money and started firing with precision.

"Totally. There was that much tension in the room that you could have cut it with a knife."

"Do you understand?" Coulson finished.

"Aye Capitani" He replied, one shot off winning such a teddy.

"May be he's still sleeping with May." Amber said, not realising Kain didn't know that May and Ward used to be a thing.

His shot missed, badly.

* * *

Ward and May were headed past the love boat. He was holding her hand and they were sharing a corn dog.

"We're supposed to be married." She said to him, tugging his hand towards the ride. He smiled his most charming smile while pretending to object and then gave in and allowed himself to be dragged into the queue.

They too heard Coulson's threat over the bear. May broke away from him just short of the queue and he ran to catch her.

"Gotcha" He said into the microphone to confirm his acknowledgement of Coulson's request.

"You changed the teams." She accused him, as he wrapped his arms around her and she cuddled into his chest.

"Yes."

"You know?"

"Of Course. And if I hadn't already known the look on your face when he suggested that you be his wife was enough."

"Thanks."

"Any time."

"Did Skye tell you?"

"She did, and before you make her do a dare it was before you admitted it on girls' night." He said to her, climbing into a boat and holding his hand out to help her in.

"How did you know about that?"

"I have a sister who used to have sleepovers in the front room and confess secrets to her friends about boys in a voice louder than she thought she was using. I know what goes on, on girls' night." He told her.

May just laughed. Of course it would have something to do with Tilly.

"And congrats by the way. Only Skye had noticed. She told me and Nat when we were discussing Fitz-Simmons at the bar. We completely missed it. What do you think prompted the night in the first place!" he admitted to her.

He placed his arm around her and pulled her into her chest. They were, after all supposed to be married and on the love boat.

"What about Fitz-Simmons?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his chest, grip torturously tight.

"May, breathing is becoming an issue!"

* * *

It took hours to go through all of the rides and the stalls, but eventually the only ride left was the Ghost Train. The team managed to all get in the queue, one pair behind the other. Skye and Coulson first followed by Amber and Kain who were pretending to whisper sweet nothings into each other's ears, then May and Ward, still holding hands and keeping up pretences, with Fitz and Simmons, still arguing over whether Simmons knows something about the pairings, bringing up the rear.

They didn't speak to each other after all they weren't supposed to know each other. The train arrived and they boarded. Just before they entered the tunnel Ward took a small pen like object out of his pocket.


	43. Chapter 43

There were six per car. The interns were in the front of one with May and Ward then Fitz-Simmons. Skye and Coulson were in the car in front of them. Things started trying to make them all jump and scream, but having seen and fought bigger scarier things than what the ghost train had to offer it was proving to be quite entertaining what lengths the creator would go to.

Ward saw it as a personal challenge to make someone scream on this ride. His choices: Kain was sat directly in front of him, May to his side and Simmons behind him. May wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for the feather up the leg routine on a ghost train; he was already working on pranking Simmons so his obvious choice was Kain.

He extended the pen-like object so it reached Amber and he started to prod and poke her with it. Every time he connected it she jumped and swatted it away from her. He retracted the device as he saw daylight coming up. The open part of the ride. The break before they threw the really scary stuff at you. When they hit daylight Amber turned to Ward and May, suspicious that it was them prodding her, it's something they would both do, and was about to open her mouth when Kain looked at her and screamed, trying to stand and jump out of the cart.

There was blood pouring down her neck. Of course it was fake blood planted there by Ward's 'pen' but Kain didn't know that.

Coulson, in the cart in front of them and hearing the girly scream from one of the interns tried to look back to see what was going on but was plunged into darkness with Skye once more.

Fitz and Simmons looked past May and Ward to see what Kain was screaming at. They instantly recognised it was fake blood. Amber still didn't realise she was covered in it.

May pretended to act scared and buried her head into Ward's armpit to keep herself from laughing at them. She had no idea exactly what Ward was up to in the dark, but she knew he was trying something!

The six of them were plunged into darkness once more and the ride started again. They entered a space that looked like a room, but as they were nearing the opposite side the room appeared to be spinning in a rather peculiar fashion. Hands gripped at them from the wall and fake plastic food pretended to chase them. They were soon in the passenger loading dock being asked to leave the train.

The attendant caught sight of Kain's pale face and then Amber's throat dripping with fake blood and admired the girl. Clearly the boyfriend had been trying to scare her with the ride but she had scared him instead.

Once they pairs had left the train they went their separate ways.

"Ok everyone, I think we have covered all of the rides. Back to the 'bus" Coulson told them down their microphones.

They used different cars and before long they were all back on the bus. Coulson and Skye finally realising what had caused Kain to scream like a girl on the open part of the ghost train.

They drove up the cargo ramp and headed into the lab before agreeing to move it to the Lounge where they could at least get a drink and a comfy seat while Amber washed the fake blood off her throat. When they got to the Lab, however they saw the strangest thing. A bra, white as cotton wool, laid out on the hollotable.

Simmons ran up to it when she recognised it was hers and snapped it up quickly. Everyone looked at her confused, except Skye, who knew that her underwear had gone missing.

They settled in the Lounge and waited for Amber. Skye and Ward were sat next to each other, making as much minimal contact they could get away with while they were still technically working; May was sat at the bar, still chuckling over Ward's prank on Kain; He was sat on his own in one of the chairs, waiting for Amber to come back from her shower. Fitz and Simmons were sat on the other end of the sofa that Ward and Skye were sat on. They were sitting a little closer than usual, but there again he was trying to find out how Simmons lost her bra in the Lab. Amber came back and shot a dangerous look at Ward, who kept a straight face when he was looking at her. She hadn't managed to clean all the fake blood off and a thin red line was still visible on her neck.

"So what did we find out?" Coulson asked them.

"Ferris Wheel was a bust" Skye told him, even though he already knew that.

"So were all the rides we went on and the stalls we visited. They'll con you out of your house if you're not careful but they didn't give off the 'I'm going to catch you and not let you go vibe'." Amber added.

"Same with us" Fitz agreed.

"May, Ward? What did you guys come up with?"

"The love boat is breathtaking" May told him, catching Ward's eye and laughing. He shot a flash of annoyance and an 'I'll get you back for that' look at her before continuing:

"There was something in the ghost train. I don't know if anyone else saw it but towards the end where you went through a deserted room that got smaller and smaller as you progressed."

"We all saw that." Kain interrupted.

"Did you see it start revolving so the floor became the ceiling and the ceiling the floor?" Ward finished.

"No."

"Wait. I saw that too." May admitted.

"Well, I think we are all going back to the fair tomorrow night" Coulson told them before dismissing them.

* * *

Ward and Skye went to bed early that night.

"So why was the love boat breathtaking then?" Skye asked him, knowing that May had probably done something to him.

"She asked when I found out about, well, you know, and I told her I was sat at the bar with Nat having a drink talking about Fitz-Simmons when you told us." He replied, climbing into bed. He preferred the side by the wall.

"You're an idiot!" Skye said, now slightly annoyed that he had told May she had told him. Next girls' night she was going to be in such trouble.

He saw the annoyance and guessed correctly what it meant.

"You won't be punished for violating girls' night. You told me beforehand" he told her.

She relented a little.

"So why was it breathtaking?"

"We were cuddled up together as you would expect a married couple to be on the love boat and she wrapped her arms around my chest trying to get information out of me about Fitz-Simmons."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"She has a vice grip and it lasted the full five minute ride. I could barely breathe!"

Skye climbed into bed next to him and cuddled into his embrace.

"I love you, idiot" she said to him before she fell asleep.


	44. Chapter 44

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone for reviewing. Please feel free to let me know what you think, even if you don't like something! I'm aiming to break 100 reviews with either this chapter or the next!**

Coulson let them all lie in. They had a late night and were more than likely going to be having another. Being alone also gave him time to process the previous night and Ward not wanting to work with Skye. True they had both gone to bed early and together the previous night, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right. He heard a movement from May's bunk. She was getting up to do her daily Tai Chi. He made a decision to ask her about it.

He got dressed and followed May to the workout room.

"May. I need to ask you something." He said to her as he entered the workout room, making her jump.

"What about?" She asked as she regained her position and started completing the slow, methodical martial arts moves.

"Did you talk to Ward last night?"

"Well we were pretending to be married so yeah..."

"Did you talk to him about him and Skye and why he switched the teams?" He asked, using a more direct approach, knowing May would answer any other question without actually answering it.

She continued her movement, put all of her thoughts into keeping her breathing rate even. As she moved she wondered what she should tell him. If she didn't answer the question then he would worry that allowing Skye and Ward to be together was a mistake, on the other hand, if she told him the truth then that was a can of worms she wasn't sure she was ready to open yet.

"May. I'm waiting for an answer." Coulson said, his voice penetrating her thoughts.

"Yes. I did talk to him about it."

"Are they having problems?" He prodded.

"Not that he told me."

"Did he tell you why he changed the teams?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Clearly Coulson wasn't going to let this drop, so May stopped moving and turned away from him. She couldn't look at him and say what she was about to.

"Because of me. Because of how I feel."

"Feel about what?" Coulson asked, slightly confused.

"You. Because of how I feel for you!" May screamed at Coulson, before storming past him, out of the door and towards the cargo ramp.

* * *

Skye and Ward had seen the whole thing. Ward had awoken earlier and Skye was using his chest as a pillow so he decided to get some reading in so that he didn't wake her. He heard May leave for her work out, then he heard someone else sneaking around. So he got up to investigate, accidentally waking Skye in the process. They followed Coulson, who they quickly realised was following May. He had left the door open when he went in the workout room.

They heard everything.

Skye went to talk to Coulson and Ward caught up to May.

"Hey!" He said to her as she opened the cargo door.

"You heard?"

"Everything. Run?"

"You're not dressed for one"

"Gimmie five?"

"Whatever."

"Wait for me outside."

* * *

"Hey AC. You ok?"

"Not now Skye."

"Just so you know. I heard everything."

"You did?"

"Yeah, but it's ok. Most of us already knew."

Coulson looked at her open mouthed, not knowing what to say.

"You do know you're going to have to talk to her about it right?" Skye continued.

"Skye!" Coulson said with a warning tone that said 'shut up' behind it.

"What? the kids don't like it when mummy and daddy fight!"

"You saying me and May are the parent of this loony bus and the rest of you are the kids?"

"Yep" Skye told him, popping the 'p' for emphasis.

"You do realise that makes what you and Ward do incest?"

"Hey! Every family has it's problems!" She laughed as she left the workout room to go get some breakfast.


	45. Chapter 45

"Where's Ward and May?" Amber asked as they met to discuss that night's plan.

"They went out for a run..." Skye told them checking her watch "... three hours ago."

"That's a long one. Even for them." Simmons pointed out.

"Personal Crap" Skye offered as an explanation, looking at Simmons, trying to silently tell her what had happened.

She didn't get it.

"Girl's talk after the briefing" Skye said, shutting up as Coulson entered the Lab.

"The plan for tonight is simple. We go in as a... Where's Ward and May?"

"Out for a run."

"Skye, when they get back you will have to update them. But we go in as a team, civilian clothes, all on comms, and we scope the ghost house."

"That's simple!" Simmons said.

"It's usually the simple ones that go wrong." Fitz countered.

"You all have some free time on the ground but meet back here at 1730 to prepare."

"Shopping?" Simmons asked Skye.

"Sure. Amber, you coming?"

* * *

"Personal issues?" Simmons asked as she, Skye and Amber took their coffees over to a vacant table.

"It got a little messy this morning." Sky informed them.

"What happened?" Amber asked.

"Coulson was asking May about last night and why Ward split us up."

"Oh my God! She didn't tell him?" Simmons, who knew the reason, asked with a look of horror on her face.

"It was more of a shout actually."

"Told who what?" Amber asked confused.

"Do you remember girl's night? May's admission?" Skye prompted, not quite believing how stupid Amber could be.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"You clearly didn't see her face last night when Coulson said that she was going to be his wife." Simmons told her.

Amber still looked confused.

"May loves Coulson, he said she was going to have to play his wife. My husband knows her feelings towards Coulson so he changed the teams around to save her from the torment. This morning she pretty much admitted to Coulson she has feelings for him, so Ward took her for a run to 'compartmentalise'. Have you caught up yet?" Skye said, dumbing it down to make it clear for the baffled intern, who promptly swallowed her drink using the wrong hole.

"Now I get it. What do we do?"

"I don't think there is anything we can do except give them space."

* * *

May and Ward had set off running. They didn't know where they were headed they just ran. When they realised what time it was they headed back. They passed through the local town and saw the three girls talking over a coffee. May tapped Ward's shoulder and they headed over.

"What you guys talking about?" Ward asked them, running his hands over the back of Skye's neck

"Eww, gross, you're all sweaty."

"Coulson gave us the day off." Simmons replied

"So you lot come out for coffee?" Ward mentioned sceptically, calling a waiter over and placing a drinks order for him and May.

"It's a nice day." Amber insisted.

"You're talking about this morning aren't you?" May asked them, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Yes." Skye admitted before adding "but only because we were trying to work out what to do next!"

"And what did you come up with?"

"The only thing we can do is keep the two of you apart until it settles down." Simmons recommended.

"Which makes tonight difficult." Skye pointed out.

"What's happening tonight?" Ward asked.

"We attack as a group, figure out what's going on as a pack."

"Well this should be fun."

They finished their drinks and set off back to the 'bus. Ward and May went with them because they had started to seize up when they joined the others.

* * *

They got back to the 'bus by 17.15 to find Fitz and Kain working on a new project. Ward and May went to shower and the others went to change, ready for their mission that night.

They were soon all kitting up with communicators and trackers, just in case they got split up. Coulson was just about to pull a magazine of bullets out of the supply cupboard when he paused, put his hand into it and pulled out a pair of knickers.

"Who's are these?"

Simmons walked up to him, grabbed them out of his hands and returned five minutes later, red faced.

"Let's go to the fair." She said as she passed them all and headed out to one of the cars.

**A/N: I'm sorry that this is a filler chapter... had to set some of the scene for the next one and we haven't found any of Simmons panties for a while!**


	46. Chapter 46

They joined the queue for the ghost train. They had agreed that they were to be a rowdy, energetic group so they were pranking each other in the queue. Simmons and Amber had filled Fitz and Kain in on the plan to keep May and Coulson apart.

"How many are in your party?" The ride coordinator asked Coulson, who was heading the group. It was a different man from the previous night.

"Erm..." he did a head count "eight."

"Cars only seat six so you'll have to split up."

"Two of them are little. Can't we squeeze them in?"

"No. Sorry, it's procedure."

"I understand, but these people are on a field trip from the insane asylum, splitting them up could result in one or more of them going missing, and as they all have homicidal, psychotic tendencies that would not be a good thing." Coulson told him, making sure to lower his voice.

They had agreed on this as their cover for being out as a group. It explained their age, gender, ethnicity and geographical differences. It was either this or Scrabble Club outing, which was Simmons idea.

"I'm sure we can squeeze you all in." The attendant said.

"Ward has to go in front" Amber nearly screamed as the car arrived, remembering the previous ride they had taken.

"Nope. I go in the middle." He countered. They kept arguing until Coulson stepped in.

"Ward, Skye and myself in the front, Amber and Kain behind, Simmons, Fitz and May in the back"

Ward stuck his tongue out at Amber. After all they were all supposed to be psychotic. As they all got seated in the car Amber flicked Wards ear and he turned to punch her. Coulson pretended to lean across Skye and restrain him. Kain, pretending to be a sex addict was hitting on Simmons who was sat behind him, who in turn was having an illuminating conversation with herself. Skye, pretending to be the shy quiet type was trying to get out of her seat and sliver to the floor, but the restraint bar stopped her. Fitz was licking the restraint bar, having cleaned it off with sterilising solution first, while May sat twirling her hair around her finger staring off into space.

The car started moving and right on cue, Skye let out a scream.

"They're coming for me. They're here. They're taking me away." She rambled before turning to Coulson "Don't let them take me."

Coulson put his arm around her.

"Shh. Shh. It's ok. It's just a ride" He soothed, as Ward launched another punch at Amber.

Once they were in the darkness Coulson let go of Skye and she cuddled into Ward. Amber stopped flicking Ward's ear. Kain stopped hitting on Simmons. Fitz stopped licking the restraint bar, May stopped twirling her hair and Simmons directed her conversation toward May and Fitz.

Before they knew it they were hitting daylight again.

They changed their behaviours slightly.

Skye was trying to climb out of the car across Ward's lap, still screaming they were after her, while Coulson was trying to keep her in. Amber was trying to strangle Ward as his hands were full with Skye. Kain had turned to start hitting on Simmons again to find they had managed to change positions on the back seat and he was now face to face with May, who was twirling her hair again, but was now blowing bubbles with some gum while staring into space. Fitz was now licking the back of the car, getting closer and closer to falling out of it. Simmons had resumed her conversation, but was now putting on a male voice to answer her own questions.

As they plunged into darkness again, all of the people in the car became serious. They were approaching the suspicious part of the ride. They entered the room and like before, the further they got into it the smaller it seemed to become.

None of them saw it spin.

They got to the end of the ride and Coulson pretended to shuffle them out of the car and away from the ride. Amber punched Ward and he started to chase her, only to have his arm grabbed by Coulson. He then made sure the others were safely off the ride before leading them to the nearest food stall, all the while keeping hold of Ward.

Suddenly Coulson felt Ward stop and turn back to the ride.

"What's up?"

"I just had a strange feeling."

"What about?"

"The ride. There is something different about the train coming out than going in."

"It looks the same to me. Come on. We'll compare notes."

Looking over their shoulders they made their way to an open space of land that was far away from all of the rides and stalls.

"Anyone, anything?"

There was a chorus of 'no' from everyone, including May and Ward.

Coulson was about to call it a night when Ward suggested a possibility.

"Maybe it's not the one ride. Maybe it's the combination May and I took."

"It's worth a shot." May said, realising Ward may have a point.

"Let's do it! Where did you two start."

"We started off with a corn dog and love boat, worked our way round our section from there."

"Let's go then!"


	47. Chapter 47

**A/N: I know some of you have requested more SkyeWard ... I haven't forgotten but they need to stop having fun at the fair before I can give you what you want!**

**And thanky ou so much for your reviews. I have reached 100 for the first time ever! Please keep them coming...**

They followed the actions May and Ward had taken the previous night, starting with the corn dog. They all got in line for the love boat. Fitz and Simmons pulled Coulson in with them, Amber and Kain went on the next one and May went with Ward and Skye, insisting that she sit in the middle to stop her being the third wheel. The attendant was looking at this group carefully. There were meant to be two to a boat, not three, but Coulson had given the attendant the 'loony bin' angle and she relented. The ride was uneventful. From there they moved onto the ice blast (the ride that shoots you straight up in the air before dropping you back down to earth without warning), the carousel and the fun house. They also played some games, Coulson reiterating his giant stuffed teddy threat. Ward was about to step up to the gun range when Skye saw the parent of a small girl trying to win her a teddy. The parent failed miserably and the girl started crying. Skye tugged on Ward's sleeve and nodded towards the girl. Ward raised his eyebrow at Coulson who nodded. They were, after all supposed to be psychotic and unpredictable. Ward stepped up, took the rifle and fired off the shots with Skye bouncing on her toes next to him. Ward hit every target and the attendant eyed him suspiciously. Skye chose a teddy, took it over to the young girl and presented it to her before walking off without saying a word.

"They are on a field trip from the insane asylum" Coulson told the suspicious attendant, who nodded and relaxed.

None of the rides proved to be eventful. They still all acted crazy to maintain their cover. Amber hit Ward again and he chased after her before Coulson could stop him. He took out some handcuffs and handcuffed Skye to a light post. He then handcuffed May to her, then Simmons to May, Fitz to Simmons and Kain to Fitz, before heading off after Ward and Amber. He caught up to them just outside the Ghost Train. Ward had her in a headlock. She could have easily broken it as he was watching the cars coming out of the exit.

Coulson made a big show over getting Ward to let Amber go and escorting them back to the others. But when he got there they were gone and the handcuffs were linked around the light post.

Coulson knew May had picked them to keep up the charade. He handcuffed Ward and Amber together and started asking questions of the attendants. By now they knew that Coulson was escorting seven deranged people. One of the attendants offered to put out an announcement over the tannoy. Coulson gladly and graciously accepted.

"Could all members of the Spire Towers Mental Institute return to the rendezvous point please? You leader says he will let you on one more ride of your choosing before you go home if you are all there in the next five minutes. If not, you will go straight back."

The message rang loud and clear throughout the grounds.

Within five minutes the group had made it back to the lamppost. Coulson handcuffed them all in pairs. He made to handcuff May to himself as she looked like the most dangerous one of the group, but she skirted away from him and held onto Fitz, so he relented and handcuffed her to the pair that was Fitz and Kain.

"What ride do you want to go on before we all go home?" He asked in a babying tone.

"Ghost Train!" They all shouted and Coulson led them back to the queue.

Once they were there he removed the handcuffs and gave the attendant an apologetic grin.

"They wanted to go again." He explained to the bemused man.

Ward was watching the cars again while Amber was trying to wind him up. She blew in his ear and then he pounced. He pinned her to the floor, still watching the cars go round. He memorised the number order while Coulson was trying to talk him off Amber.

Their car eventually came and they filed in. Fitz, May and Amber were in the front, Skye, Ward and Simmons in the middle and Coulson and Kain in the back. They started their behaviours of their previous trip before Skye screamed again and they were plunged into darkness once more.

"What was that all about back there?" Coulson asked, leaning forward and whispering into Ward's ear "You seemed completely zoned out again while you were watching the cars."

"I was memorising the numbers" Ward explained, just as quietly.

"Why?"

"I think whole cars are disappearing. Earlier while I was watching them they went from five to seven, completely missing number six. While I was watching them just now, number six was there, right between five and seven."

They made it to the shrinking room and it was right there...

The room was spinning.

Before they knew it they were back out in the fresh, cool night air approaching the exit platform.

They all started climbing out of the car, except Ward who was on the farthest side to the platform. He refused to move. He had realised they were sat on car five when they embarked.

"Again!" he shouted.

"We can't go again. There are people waiting for the car." Coulson tried to reason with him.

"I. Want. To. Go. Again." Ward said, his psychotic tantrum convincing to the rest of his team that he was about to break.

Sensing that Coulson had his hands full the attendant approached Ward slowly and carefully.

"We can't let you stay on this car, _but_ if it's ok with your guardian I can take you to the head of the queue and put you on the next car?"

Having got what he wanted, Ward agreed, thought he did make a point to threaten to kill the guard if he was lying.

The team headed to the front of the queue, to many objections and climbed into car number six.

"Hey, that's not fair, we've been waiting ages to go on the ride!" was the general outcry. As they set off Coulson heard the attendant tell the people waiting that the group was mentally ill and to avoid mass murder and psychosis he had to let them cut the queue, then he realised what car number they were sat in.

"Ward. Why are we sat in car six?" he asked turning to Ward who was sat next to him this time.

"You wanted to find out what happens didn't you."

"I didn't want to live it!"

"By the way. I think you and me need to have a talk when this is all over."

"About what?"


	48. Chapter 48

They reached the shrinking room again. It was still spinning, only this time, as the ceiling was on the floor and visa-versa their car veered off to one side.

"What's going on?" Amber asked, a slight hint of fear in her voice.

"I think we are being taken" Ward told her from the back. His voice remaining calm, even with the threat of imminent danger.

They passed through an icy breeze before being met by blistering heat. This repeated four times so that by the time they got to the end of the track their every nerve felt as though it were on fire.

And then blackness.

* * *

Ward came round first. He opened his eyes, which was more difficult than he expected it to be. When he finally managed to keep them open and the room had come back into focus he realised that he was bound using rope and crude knots. The room was fairly dark and all he could see were the outlines of the others. He twisted his hands trying to free them when he heard someone stir beside him. He broke free of his restraints and felt across to them. He used his hands to try and figure out who it was, but he needn't have bothered.

"That is my boob" May said as he ran his hands over her body.

"Sorry." He apologised, quickly removing them and he helped to untie her.

Together they moved around the room releasing everyone else's hands and when they came to they helped them focus.

"Who was the genius who decided this would be a good idea?" Coulson asked groggily as he struggled to come into focus

"Ward's" came the general response, all in varying degrees of alertness.

The room seemed to be getting darker, so May, realising she had brought a lighter just in case this happened, lit it and engulfed the room in flickering light.

"I think I'm going to chuck!" Amber cried, clapping her hand to her mouth, face going a little green.

They were in a room with a bunch of skeletons. There was also one person, alive and tied up against the wall. She had clearly been there a couple of days. She looked terrified at their presence.

"Are you ok?" Coulson asked her.

The girl tried to back away from him, but being up against the wall she didn't get very far.

"We won't hurt you." He tried again.

"They told me they had brought me some friends from the crazy place down the road." She whispered.

"We aren't from the crazy place. We're S.H.I.E.L.D and we've been investigating the disappearances linked to the carnival."

"So you're not crazy?" She asked meekly, relief starting to spread across her face.

"I'm not going to lie to you, we are a little crazy, but we are the safe crazy in the sense that we won't hurt you unless you try hurt us first." Ward said, giving the girl his dazzling smile while Coulson undid her bonds.

"I'm Agent Coulson, this are Agent's May, Ward, Skye, Fitz and Simmons. These two are Agent's in Training Donhaugue, and Keeler." Coulson told her, pointing to the members of his team, while helping her to her feet.

"I'm Hollie. I was here with my boyfriend but he disappeared."

"Welcome to my little experiment." A voice in the room said. Ward, May and Skye hunted for it before coming across a speaker.

"You now have two choices. You can attempt my obstacle course to escape or you can remain in the room."

The team just looked at each other.

"You may well be wondering what the aim of the experiment is. Well I will tell you. I am looking into the courage and strength of people and to see who can tolerate pain the most. You were all selected from the ghost train, the scariest ride at the Carnival. Of course you were drugged first. I leave the choice up to you."

"Great. So we stay here and starve to death, or we complete this lunatic's obstacle course and pretty much torture ourselves to get out." Fitz said to the now sombre group.

"What weapons do we have?" Coulson asked.

"I have nothing" Simmons admitted.

"Me either" Fitz also confessed.

"I have a hairpin!" Amber said hoping that other people would have more.

"They took my knife." Kain told them.

Coulson turned to look at Ward and May.

May pulled two knives and a gun off her body and tossed them into the centre of the room.

"I have... Two guns, three knives, a pair of fingerless gloves and a half eaten snickers" Ward admitted, patting himself down, removing the weapons and adding them to May's.

"A half eaten snickers?" Coulson asked, bemused as to why Ward had a half eaten chocolate bar in his pocket, and where exactly he had managed to conceal all of those weapons. Hollie's stomach rumbled. Ward tossed her the chocolate.

"Eat this, you may feel better, but I warn you. I don't know how long it's been in there!"

"Thankyou" Hollie said, before sinking her teeth into it.

"So how do we get out of here?" Simmons asked.

May walked around the room with the lighter. She got to the door. There was no handle. Ward was feeling his way around the other side. He came to a ventilation grate at the top of the wall. When he touched it, it zapped him.

"I think I've found it!" He shouted.

"Found what?"

"The way out."

He touched the grate again and nothing happened. He took one of the knives and started unscrewing the bolts at the bottom that were holding the grate in position. They split the weapons between them. They gave Coulson, Fitz and Simmons the guns, May, Ward, Skye, Amber and Kain took a knife each. Ward put the gloves on.

"Right, this is how we go in. Ward first," He saw the look on Ward's face before continuing "I'm sorry Ward but you are best equipped to deal with things out front. Then Simmons, who can pass the gun on if needed, then Skye, Hollie, Myself, Amber, Kain and May bringing up the rear, just in case they try to surprise us."

"Coulson, how are we going to get into the grate? The only person tall enough to push the first person through you is the one you want to go first?"

"Skye, May. Go up. Pull Ward up and then help the others. Ward, don't go anywhere until we are all in."

Ward laced his fingers and locked his hands together while bending his knees. Skye placed one hand on his shoulder for balance and one of her feet into his hands. He pushed her up into the air so she could reach the opening. She managed to get a hold and pull herself through. May followed. Ward having felt the location of the vent took a run at the wall and kicked off it into the direction of the vent. He got his fingers onto the edge when he felt Skye and May grab his wrists and pull. When he was completely in the vent he had to crawl past May and Skye. As he crawled past May he suddenly became aware just how small this vent was. He hadn't been this close to May since they were sleeping together.

Kain had taken over Ward's position of hoisting everyone into the vent. When he was in the vent (he used the same technique Ward did, but was far less graceful with it and nearly pulled May out of the vent) and had crawled past May, they sent a message to Ward to start the journey.


	49. Chapter 49

Ward set off using his elbows and knees to move himself forward. Every so often he would pause and use the light on his watch to light the way. He got to a junction in the vent.

"Left or right?" He shouted back down to the group.

Half cried 'left' while the other half cried 'right'.

"Helpful!" was his retort. He looked down each tunnel, carefully evaluating each. The tunnel to the left was slightly smaller than the one to the right, so he took it, using the logic that if you were in a cramped space and panicking you would take the path of least resistance, in this case the larger tunnel. He heard them all follow and then he heard the sharp crackle and fizz of an electrically charged piece of metal discharging.

"Everyone alright?" he called.

"We're all fine. May just wanted to check your theory"

"What theory?"

"That you chose the right way. Apparently you did."

"You guys _are_ crazy." He heard Hollie mutter a few people behind him.

They continued following the vent until Ward saw light coming from a grate and his head brushed a dead end. He put his ear to listen to the grate. There was the tell tale hum of electricity running through it.

"Simmons, back up a little, pass it on. When you have, tap my foot."

He heard the murmur of the message being passed along the line, as well as the tell tale shuffling. Before long he felt a tug on his right foot. He took out the knife that he had been carrying in his sleeve, feeling very thankful that it was insulated, and knocked the grate out. The spark that came from the grate made everyone scream.

"I'm fine!" Ward called back down the line, before slotting the knife back up his sleeve and sticking his head out of the grate to check the room. It looked clear so he slowly and silently dropped from the grate in the ceiling to the floor.

"Stay there Simmons. Let me look to see what we have in here." He told her.

Feeling better armed he removed the knife from his sleeve again. It was pitch black in the room and Ward could hear no sound, so he helped the others down one by one. Once May had made it into the room she lit the lighter once more while Ward pressed the light on his watch. There still saw very little, but a rustling sound had become present and was getting louder and louder.

Skye looked up to the ceiling and screamed, making the others look up just in time to see hundreds of bats swooping down to attack them. They all fell to the floor, covering their faces using anything they had access to: their hands, elbows, jackets, each other.

Ward, while keeping one hand covering his face, checked his pockets for anything that might help. He found a business card that he had got a few years before. It had a girls number on it.

"May, toss me your lighter!" He called above the din of the bats.

He heard the lighter clatter somewhere near his feet and he groped around for it. He found it and set the small flame against the corner of the business card. It caught fire at once and the bats seemed to back off a little, suddenly scared of the light and heat.

Ward quickly got to his feet and crawled over to Skye who had been backed into a corner and had a bat currently trying to pull her hair out. As he creeped closer he heard the floor creak, so he risked a glance down.

A trapdoor!

He pulled Skye off it.

"Over here!" Skye shouted as Ward opened the door to check what was underneath.

Everyone crawled over to Ward and Skye as the business card finally burned to a point he could no longer hold it. They heard the bats start their rustling again and decided whatever lie beneath the trapdoor was probably better than the swooping pincers of the bats.

So they jumped.

The corridor they landed in was just about big enough for Ward to stand up in, and wide enough so that they could walk side by side. Ward again went first with Skye next to him. She was holding his hand for dear life. They were followed by Simmons and Fitz, who were also holding hands for comfort. Coulson and Hollie were next, followed by Amber and Kain, who were accidentally brushing against each other and making themselves jump, much to the amusement of May, who was bringing up the rear to fend off surprises. Kain bumped into the wall and managed to hit a switch that turned on very minimal lighting. They couldn't complain, the lighter was almost dead. At least they could see where they were going now.

They made it maybe, 500 meters down the tunnel when Ward stopped dead, stepping in front of Skye to stop her taking another step.

_Hisssss_

"Snake" he said when Fitz and Simmons walked into them.

The hissing grew louder. They couldn't see where the hissing was coming from but they knew it was getting nearer. Then they heard May squeal from the back.

"I hate snakes." She admitted to them as the very large python was slowly and carefully wrapping itself around her leg.

"The second we touch that thing she could lose her leg" Hollie pointed out.

Before a plan could be formulated (they realised Ward's 'special skill' would be useless against a coiled snake) the snake had smelt a rat and had released May's leg, preferring the smaller prey. It was clearly hungry.

"Why is it _my_ leg they crawl up?" She asked, feeling relieved.

"Let's get out of here." Amber suggested.

They quickened their pace down the tunnel. Again, they came to a junction.

As a group they looked down the two tunnels they could take.

"We went left last time, I vote we go right this time." Kain suggested

"Sounds good to me!" Amber agreed.

May looked down the right hand tunnel and then looked to Ward. She saw him nod his head to the left. Clearly the interns had missed the dead body that was lying, half hidden by a turning.

"We go left" May said as Ward pulled Skye down the left hand tunnel.

Fitz and Simmons glanced down the right hand tunnel and saw what had made the two agent's minds up. Coulson, expecting something like the body, shielded Hollie from the view and guided her after the others. After another thirty minutes of walking down the tunnel they came to an indoor river. They clearly had to cross it, because on the other side, stood a door.

"Any volunteers?" Coulson asked, pointing at the river.

May stepped forward and volunteered to try it first, before Fitz pointed out that it could contain flesh eating bacteria or some equally nasty bug like the false floor room did. May quickly removed her leg.

"We could build a bridge" Kain said, remembering the team building exercise he had to do the previous year at the academy.

"Yeah, cool. We could build it with all the wood and rope we don't have" May retorted sarcastically.

Fitz and Simmons were crouched down on the edge watching the water. They saw a ripple and it grew bigger and bigger. They jumped away from the side, startling everyone else in the process

"There is something in there!" Simmons told them.

"What is it?" Coulson asked.

"Don't know, but the water moved."

Ward, holding onto Skye so he wouldn't fall, leant over the water. He too saw the ripples. Skye pulled him back.

"Anyone got anything they don't mind losing?" He asked.

Coulson took his jacket off and removed his holster. He had spent a year breaking it in, but it was the only thing that could be easily replaced. He passed it to Ward who leant over the water again. He dropped the holster into the middle of the water and Skye pulled him back up. The holster floated there for a couple of seconds before a beast rose out of the water to bite it. The group took a step back in surprise.

"At least we now know that we are dealing with a Godzilla sized alligator" Skye quipped.

"So how do we get across the water?" Hollie asked

"Like this" May said as she took the gun off Fitz and Ward took the gun off Simmons.

"Nat's gonna kill me!" Ward muttered as he took off one of the gloves and threw it onto the water.

The second the alligator surfaced May and Ward shot at it, bullets penetrating its eyes. It floated on the top of the water, dead.

They waited for a minute to see if there were more lurking under the water, but there didn't appear to be, so using the alligator as a stepping stone they, one by one made it across the river. Ward was the last to cross and he was about to make the jump for the 'stepping stone' when he heard a noise behind him.

There _was_ another alligator, just not in the water, and it was advancing, fast.

Ward flicked a switch on the remaining glove. It glowed with blue lines across the back.

Skye, who had seen the danger Ward was in tried to get back across the water to him, but she was restrained by Coulson and May.

The alligator dived for Ward.


	50. Chapter 50

Ward had very little time to react. He dove to the side and missed the alligator, but hit the wall and landed on the floor next to it. He glanced at the others. Fitz was trying to tell him something, but he didn't have the time to process it. The alligator flew at him again and Ward used his fist to hit it in the head with the back of his gloved hand. There was a ripple of blue light and a familiar zapping and cracking sound as the glove Ward was wearing electrocuted the alligator, causing it to collapse in a heap. As Ward scrambled away from it May took the opportunity to shoot it before it came to its senses.

Ward jumped over the river using the first alligator as a stepping stone and joined the others.

They turned their attention to the door. It was a large door, made of solid oak, with a large iron lock and handle. Coulson tried to turn it, but of course it was locked.

"What the hell is that thing?" Fitz asked holding Ward's gloved hand up by the wrist and examining it, while May was working on the locked door.

"Spider bite. It's Nat's. I borrowed them a little while ago. What were you trying to tell me?" he asked Fitz.

"The watch. I was telling you to pull the pin on the watch. It would have done the same thing as this spider bite thing."

"That means you can give Nat her spider bites back." Coulson told him, knowing when Ward said he had 'borrowed' the bites he really meant that Romanov didn't know he had them.

"She's gonna kill me." Ward repeated.

"Why?"

"I made one into 'gator bait."

They door swung open. May quickly got hold of it and closed it again. The smell from the next room was horrendous.

"Sulphur" Simmons said, holding her hand up to her nose.

"Is it safe?"

"It's safe if you.." Fitz started.

"Before you go all sciency Fitz, make it in English." Ward interrupted.

"It's safe, but we will have to cover out noses and mouths with fabric. It would help to wet the fabric too." Simmons advised and before anyone could stop her she had stuck her hand into the river.

When she brought it out again she smelt it.

"The water's safe. It's fresh water, a bit like you find in a lake." She said

"You didn't need to stick your hand in it to find out though did you?" Coulson shouted at her, while Hollie was stood looking horrified. They were definatley crazy.

"We knew it was safe when the alligator came out of it" Fitz told them.

"Right, fabric." May said, changing the conversation back on topic.

Ward and May pulled out their knives and started slicing large enough strips of fabric off everyone's clothing. They then dunked the strips into the river and placed it over their noses and mouths.

"Everyone ready?" Ward asked, with one hand on the door.

"As ready as we'll ever be."

Ward opened the door and set off across the room, surveying it as he went. There were two green swamp pits bubbling away either side of a stone pathway. The pathway was about a human foot width across and resembled a gymnastic beam. The sulphur was clearly coming from the pits. About halfway across Ward started coughing. Skye saw he was in trouble and guided him across the rest of the beam. Fitz, Simmons and Skye were trying to help Ward on the other side while Coulson worked on the next door. When he had it open he dragged Ward into the fresher air of the next room. Ward soon stopped coughing but there was a definite wheeze to his breathing.

Hollie crouched down before him and checked his pulse.

"It's ok. I'm an M.D." She told him as she looked at his eyes.

"Why only Ward?" Kain asked, noticing everyone else was alright.

"Clearly he isn't as fit as we thought. There must be residual lung scarring from that allergic reaction last week and it must have been aggravated by the sulphur." Simmons said, just running ideas as to why Ward was now sitting propped up against a wall, trying to regain his breathing.

"We should have realised. We are so sorry Ward." Fitz told him.

"It's fine. I'm fine. Let's keep moving." He replied, hauling himself to his feet.

"May, can you spot the way out?" Coulson asked.

"Yeah, but getting to it is going to be an issue."

"Why?"

Coulson followed May's hand when she pointed to the exit. It was three stories above their head and there was no ladder. Water started pouring in at their feet. Ward turned the Spider bite off. The last thing they needed was for him to electrocute everyone. Before they knew it the water was at their knees. It was cold, very cold.

"Here's the plan. We let the water carry us up to the exit. I'm not going to lie, it's gonna hurt. And then we enter the tunnel. May, you take the lead, Skye next, then Simmons, Hollie, Ward, Kain, Amber, Fitz and then myself."

They didn't argue. The icy water was now swirling around their waists (on some of the shorter people it was at their breast line) and it was starting to take their breath away.

"Don't fight the cold" Ward told them.

He had fought his way through water as cold as this before. He knew that the best practice was to embrace the cold, that way your body will get used to it quicker.

"That's easier said than done." Fitz shouted. The last time he had been surrounded by a mass of icy cold water was when he and Simmons had plummeted into the sea in that capsule.

"This is salt water. It should help us float a little." Simmons informed them as the water reached their neckline.

Amber was already off her feet treading water. It's a good job they all have to stay fit for their jobs. Before long they were all off their feet treading water. Suddenly Ward's head dipped below the surface, making Skye scream. Coulson saw it too and dove under to retrieve him. They broke the surface and Ward started coughing again. He was weak from the Sulphur and struggling to keep up. Hollie was also struggling to keep afloat. She wasn't as fit as the agents.

Between them they kept Hollie and Ward afloat. The water had risen to the level of the exit and Coulson realised, it wasn't going to stop.

"Hurry. We don't have much time!" He shouted at the group. May darted into the tunnel which to her surprise rose in a sharp incline, followed by Skye, followed by Simmons. The three of them dragged Hollie in and while May dragged her away from the opening Skye and Simmons were doing the same to Ward. By the time Coulson was due to enter the tunnel he had to dive to find the opening. They all climbed the steep incline, Ward supported by Kain, glad to find that they had beaten what was clearly a water trap. They kept climbing and eventually they were greeted with an icy air blast. Remembering this happening on the ghost train they prepared themselves for the blistering heat, but none came. Then they realised there was a salty grit to the air that was starting to make their dehydrated lips crack.

They turned the last corner and came face to face with a dead end.


	51. Chapter 51

They looked around, getting under each other's feet. They couldn't find an exit. Amber bumped into Kain, who, due to lack of drinking water, food and sunlight, retaliated by pushing her into the wall. The wall moved as Amber hit it and a panel slid to the side revealing a level. Coulson pushed it and it opened a gap in the rock right in front of them. And the gap led to fading daylight. They made their way through the gap and realised they were on the edge of the carnival's parking lot.

Hearing Ward's raspy breath next to him, Coulson told them all to wait there while he and May went to get the cars. It took them a while to find the cars. Coulson had wondered if the carnival people had removed them.

Once Coulson and May pulled up in the cars the rest of the team and Hollie bundled in. Coulson and May tore out of there at breakneck speed and headed back to the 'bus. Ward was fiddling about with the dials in Coulson's car, trying to get a message through to the hub. He finally got through.

"Coulson? I've been trying to get through to you all day! Where the hell have you been?"

"It's a long story, Sir. How fast can we get backup to the 'bus? We're going to need some help."

"I already have Romanov and Barton headed in your direction. I got worried when you didn't answer."

"We'll need more, Sir. We went into the carnival last night under stealth and all it gave us was the information we needed to strike and it put Ward back into medical."

"I'm fine!" Ward protested down the line.

"I'm sorry Coulson, that's all I can spare"

Other than that it was a quiet ride back to the 'bus. When they pulled the cars onto the cargo ramp they all got out.

"Wow!" Hollie exclaimed, looking around the Lab.

"Yeah. We all kinda live here." Skye told her, climbing out of the car.

"Simmons, please escort Ward back to medical. Doctor Hollie, If you wouldn't mind?"

"Certainly, not after what you've just done for me."

"I'm fine!" Ward shouted as Simmons grabbed his arm and escorted him back to medical and the bed he felt like he had just vacated.

Simmons prodded him into the bed and started hooking the monitors up to him, while Hollie looked at the monitors.

"Heart rate is within normal parameters, breathing rate is a little shallow, oxygen saturation is a little low as is blood pressure, but that's just speculation as I don't know what's normal for guy's like you."

"No, you're right. They are a little low, even for the robot here." Simmons confirmed, earning a death glare from Ward.

Skye came in at that point.

"Simmons, AC wants you in the Lab. He says the Doc here should be able to handle Ward."

"And what if I can't?" Hollie asked, worried, as Simmons went back to the Lab

Skye smiled at Hollie, walked up to Ward and whispered into his ear.

She pulled back from the bed and headed back out of the door.

"He'll behave for you" Skye shouted back over her shoulder.

* * *

Back in the Lab they were trying to come up with a plan of attack for the Carnival while they waited for their Romanov and Hawkeye to arrive.

"Without going in using stealth again I don't see how we get into their lair." May said.

"We could go in the way you guys came out" Romanov said from behind them, making them all jump. It was clear where Tilly had learned it.

"We could but there are some pretty big obstacles to overcome"

"Like what?" Hawkeye asked.

"A three storey drop down a smooth wall." Coulson told him.

"A river with an alligator stepping stone" Fitz added.

"Python" May said, shuddering

"Sulphur room" Skye concluded, remembering Ward in the Med Suite.

"Those are a few problems. The three storey drop isn't a problem. We use a rope." Hawkeye said

"And scuba gear." Amber added.

Hawkeye looked at her really confused.

"The three storey drop is a water trap. We may trigger it again on the way back in." Coulson explained.

"Air rebreather. It'll get us through the water and room of Sulphur." Fitz said.

"Ok, torches should sort out the bats." Simmons added

"If I see that damn snake again I'll shoot it."

"The river?"

"Rope swing. Use the same rope to scale walls" Hawkeye suggested.

"That's good." Coulson agreed.

"Who've we got in on this? Romanov asked.

"Myself, May, Amber, Kain, Fitz-Simmons you and Hawk."

"Ward and Skye?" Romanov asked.

"The Sulphur room made Ward ill, Skye is the only one who can keep him in medical." Coulson told her.

"Is he ok?" Romanov asked concerned.

"He's fine" Ward said, entering the room, with Hollie behind him.

"I thought I told you to stay in medical?"

"Doc said I could leave if I kept breathing the oxygen." Ward retorted holding up an oxygen cannister.

Ignoring Ward they continued with the plan.

"We could take a universal key for those door locks." May said, rifling through their armoury.

"How do we get through that first door?" Amber asked.

"X Ray glasses" Skye and Fitz said together, remembering how well the glasses work.

"How will that help us get in?" Kain asked them.

"The glasses will let us see the mechanism, which we can then destroy, which will then open the door."

"So the plan is. We arrive at the exit tunnel, break in through the door, use a rope to climb down the water trap if we don't trigger it, rebreathers if we do. We keep the rebreathers on to pass through the room of Sulphur, blowing the door with the universal key, same on the other side. We then cross the river using one of Hawkeye's arrows, Fitz, Simmons and the interns will remain there and follow the paths we didn't use with the dwarves, taking any, erm..."

Coulson paused looking for the right word to use to mean dead bodies.

"...samples, while May, Nat, Hawkeye and myself will proceed down the corridor, up and into the bat chamber, where we use the torches to scare the bats. We then climb into the vent and follow it back to the room with no door handle. We use another universal key on the door to open it and then we will have to follow our noses."

"What about the 'gators?" Ward asked

"They seemed to like spider bites so we can let Natasha deal with them." Kain said.

Romanov looked at Ward and held her hand out to him.

"Hand them over. I told you not to misuse them, or let anyone know you had them."

He handed over the one remaining spider bite.

"Where's the other?"

"'Gaitor bait. I will tell you about it later" He admitted.

"So if we have a plan, I think it's time to execute it. Gear up!" Coulson told them.


	52. Chapter 52

Hollie watched in fascination as they prepared their gear. She saw May change into a black catsuit similar to the one Romanov was wearing and load weapon after weapon onto her body. She saw Romanov do the same and she saw Hawkeye prepare his bow and quiver of arrows. Amber and Kain armed themselves with a couple of guns each and Fitz-Simmons were making sure all of their electronic equipment was locked firmly into waterproof cases. Coulson hadn't changed out of his suit, but was loading it with all sorts of weapons.

She wouldn't have a clue what was going on if Ward and Skye hadn't been commentating. Romanov turned her spider bites on.

The team got into the cars. Coulson was driving one containing Fitz and the interns; May was driving the other with Simmons, Romanov and Hawkeye.

To satisfy Ward and show Hollie how good they were when they had time to plan they had all agreed to wear the head cameras.

"Base command this is Black Widow, do you copy?" They heard Romanov ask them

"Black Widow, this is base command. Reading you loud and clear."

"Black Widow?" Hollie asked.

"Nat's codename. It's a long story, but it's why the gloves are called spider bites. They're hers and no one else owns or has the designs for them." Ward explained.

"So what the hell happened between you and Coulson?" the heard Romanov ask May, they hadn't synced their comms up with the others yet so they had a few moments of relative privacy.

"Nothing."

"_May?_ You do know you are on a bus with two of S.H.I.E.L.D's finest manipulators."

"She admitted she had feelings for him. To his face" They heard Simmons blurt.

"You did what?" they then heard Romanov say, while they could hear laughter in the background that could only be Hawkeye.

"Syncing up with Fitz now" Skye told them, giving them fair warning that everything they were about to say would be heard by everyone.

All Ward, Skye and Hollie could do now is sit back and enjoy the show.

* * *

The team made it to the rock face and bailed out of the cars. Fitz got out the portable x ray machine to start scanning the face for the door and its mechanism. He found it quickly and realised that it was a simple mechanism to crack. He removed the drill from the back of the car and drilled the key element of it. The door swung open and Fitz returned the drill to the car. With Coulson in the lead the team entered the obstacle. They cautiously walked down the slope and congregated at the opening. They hadn't set off the trap.

There was nowhere for them to tie the rope.

Hawkeye ran his hands around the tunnels entrance before backtracking up the slope, taking out an arrow and firing it into the roof of the opening. He walked over to the edge, threw the remainder of the rope down the side of the water trap and leaned back out over the edge and jumped once and then once more for luck. He told them they would have to take it in turns and when he reached the bottom he would let the next person know to set off.

Romanov elected to remain at the top and descend last. Once she hit the floor they all took out their rebreathers and proceeded to unlock the door. Coulson walked up to it and placed a small circular object on the lock before turning around and walking five paces away from it. The lock blew away easily and the door swung wide open. Coulson walked along the thin ledge of the Sulphur pit and blew the next door.

The rest of the team made their way over the path and congregated on the ledge by the river. May jimmied the door shut with a knife so that they could remove their air masks. That's when they noticed the carcasses of the two alligators were gone.

Hawkeye took aim above the river and fired. He took a rock out of his pack and tied it to the end so they could swing it backwards and forwards. Coulson, May, Romanov and Hawkeye swung to the other side of the river. They swung the rope back to Amber, who tied it to May's knife in the door. Fitz was waking up the dwarves and sending them on their way.

He sent them towards where they saw the body earlier in the day. When he got them there he took samples from the body using some of the dwarves, while sending others further into the tunnel. He got to a dead end so he turned them back and when Simmons had declared they had collected enough samples from the body he sent the dwarves to follow Coulson and the others. He got to the next junction they came across and headed down the track they didn't take. They dwarves detected that which they already knew. That way had been electrified. Fitz sent the dwarves further down the tunnel, which led downwards. If you chose that path you would be electrocuted with enough power to cause you immense amounts of pain, but not kill you. The slope pulled you downwards and ended in an open door at the bottom. The dwarves went through it and Fitz stopped them. They were in a room that had a bed of nails on the floor. The entrance was at the top. There was no chance of survival if you made it through the electro tunnel. There were bodies in varying states of decomposition and what looked like hundreds of skeletons.

* * *

Meanwhile the others had set off for the path the group had taken earlier.

"Just be careful of snakes." May warned them as the neared the end of the corridor.

"What is it with you and damn snakes?" Romanov asked her

"I just don't like them; it's the way they move." May told her.

"A little help please!" Hawkeye said from behind them. The other three turned to see May's snake friend coiling itself around Hawkeye's throat. May took out her gun and fired at the snake. The bullet passed clean through and caught Hawkeye.

"Thanks May. I thought I was a gonner!" he said, as they patched the cut to the side of his throat.

"Let's go" Coulson said to them and they all hurried the final distance to the trapdoor.

They helped each other climb through it and into the room with the bats. They turned their torches on which kept the bats from swooping. Hawkeye rigged another rope to the ventilation tunnel and Romanov climbed up first, followed by Coulson, May and Hawkeye.

"Nat, If you get electrocuted you've gone too far!" May told her.

They had barely made it five metres when they was a loud fizz and crackle with an accompanying flash of blue light.

"Ow!" Romanov yelped.

"You ok?" Coulson asked directly behind her.

"Yeah, just accidentally felt a bite!" She replied, turning her spider bites off so she didn't manage to zap herself again.

She set off again and they quickly made it to the junction. Within ten minutes Romanov had reached the grate. It seemed that it had been replaced, so she took her torch and pushed at it. The grate sent off sparks as the electric circuit in the grate blew.

She held her hands on the edge before rolling out of the hole and landing catlike on the floor. She helped Coulson down and between them they got May and Hawkeye out of the hole.

They suddenly heard screaming and gunshots down their comms lines. Something was going wrong with the others.


	53. Chapter 53

"I knew I should have left May with them" Coulson thought as they tried to get in touch with Simmons, Fitz or one of the interns. Then Simmons voice came through loud and clear and he felt a sigh of relief.

"We're alright, Sir. We just had a run in with another alligator." She explained.

"As long as you're alright!" He said.

"We're fine. Just a little shaken. I think that might just be the first time the interns have had to fire their guns outside of the academy!" Fitz told them.

Knowing that the rest of the team were safe Coulson and his team carried on. They located the door with no handle and applied another universal lock. It quickly blew and they realised that they were now on their own. Looking out of the door they were in the middle of a corridor. Coulson and Romanov headed one way, Hawkeye and May the other.

Hawkeye and May headed down the corridor, trying every door they passed. They were all empty. They got to a room at the end of the corridor, and when they went in they saw they were in some kind of office.

* * *

On the 'bus they had forced Ward back into his hospital bed when his blood pressure dropped a little more. Hollie was sat with Skye asking questions about life on the bus.

"It must be difficult to form close relationships if you spend your life on an aeroplane?" She asked.

"You get to know the people you live with very well. You learn their routines, bad habits as well as personal flaws."

"That isn't what I meant. I meant love lives."

"I know, I was trying to buy some time. Personal relationships are complicated."

"Complicated. Hmm. You're wearing a wedding band. How does your husband feel about you living on a plane with these other people?"

Skye let out a laugh, before she heard May's voice calling her over the microphone.

"Cavalry to base command, cavalry to base command."

"I'm married to Agent Ward" Skye told Hollie as she flipped the switch to talk to May.

"What can I do for you May?" Skye continued.

"Can you see these computers?"

"I can. You need me to hack them?"

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"I will get on that for you."

"We're going to follow Coulson."

"Copy that."

Skye saw the video feed of May linger on the computer long enough for her to start the hack, then she turned and followed Hawkeye out of the door.

She started tapping away at her laptop and found her way into the computer's system.

"Everything alright Hollie?" She asked, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Yeah. I'm just waiting to start our chat again!"

"I can type and talk at the same time."

"You did say personal relationships were complicated. I didn't realise they were that complicated!"

"Me and Ward aren't complicated, the Director gave us the ok to be together, but there are rules we have to follow. Fitz and Simmons and the way May feels about Coulson are complicated. Nat and Hawkeye too."

"Intimate relationships aren't allowed?"

"No, but Nat and Hawkeye were made for each other, and she did kiss him in front of the Director, so I guess he kinda knows about that, Fitz loves Simmons but she doesn't love him back, May loves Coulson and we thought she would never admit it to him, which she did yesterday morning."

"That's what you mean when you said it was complicated?"

"Yup!"

* * *

Romanov and Coulson had taken the opposite path to Hawkeye and May. They too tried every door they passed and found nothing. They suddenly heard movement from ahead of them and ducked into one of the vacant rooms.

From their vantage point they saw six men carrying six unconscious bodies down the corridor towards the room they had come from. Silently Romanov crept from the room and before they knew what was going on the men were all unconscious too. Between Romanov and Coulson they dragged the men into one of the rooms they found which also had no handle on the inside, and then dragged their victims into the room they had come from. This is where May and Hawkeye caught up with them.

After leaving a note to stay put with the victims all four made it down the corridor. They got to the door they had seen the men come out of. It led straight into the 'alternate' track of the ghost train.

"Assault team this is base command, do you read me?" They heard Skye over the comms.

"This is assault team, we read you. What's up Skye?" Coulson replied

"I've managed to pull up the schematic of the ride, including the psycho extras."

"We need to plan our next moves."

"Where are you guys?"

"End of the tracks on the 'alternate' route."

"With your back to the wall, facing the track there should be a boulder looking thing to the left."

Coulson looked at Romanov, who cautiously walked out onto the track.

"I'm there." She said.

"Do you see the boulder?"

"Yes."

"In it appears to be the controls for the entire operation." Skye told her. Coulson, May and Hawkeye looked at each other. Romanov, however was more interested in the boulder.

"It's just a boulder Skye."

"It's got a pressy in thingy to remove the cover job."

"A what?"

May, knowing Skye a little better than Romanov, and therefore understood her own special slang language a little better, and having experienced the same mechanism before walked over to the boulder and ran her hands over it. When she found the right point she pressed into the boulder and it gave way, opening to reveal a rather complex panel of switches and wires.

"Skye? Can you see this?"

"I can. There are a couple of ways to beat this. Pulling out the wires..." Romanov pulled the wires before Skye finished talking.

"Is _not _one of them and will set off a tamper alarm." Skye finished as an alarm started wailing.

"You have a thirty second window before they all come running." Skye told them as the four found adequate cover.


	54. Chapter 54

The first man fell to the ground, arrow sticking out of his chest. The second started firing blindly to where he thought the arrow came from, but before he managed to get his second shot off there was an arrow sticking out of his chest too. The rest, realising there was an accurate marksman firing on them, retreated and hid behind a boulder.

Silently, two by two, the men fell to the floor. They had neither seen nor heard Romanov and May creep around them and attack from behind. Once all of the men were disposed of, Coulson put a bullet into the obstacle course mechanism.

"Ok, Skye. How do we destroy this thing for good? And get their latest sacrifices out of here?" he asked Skye over their comms.

"To destroy it you could blow up the ride?"

"Serious suggestions here, Skye!"

"I'm being serious. Set the charges and escape using the tunnel. When you get to the water trap room set them off. It gives you plenty of time to get out."

"And what about the gits who run out the front door?" May asked.

"A small squadron of Marines are headed to your location, as well as the local police force. Apparently Fury pulled some strings, and the police have been wanting to arrest the carnival employees for some time."

"A charge will destroy the evidence." Coulson argued.

"I have the schematics for the whole thing here, and Hollie has just told me she will testify."

"Fine, let's do it!" Coulson agreed, defeated. Hawkeye took a charge device out of his pack and armed it. Together they made it back to the room with the vent. May placed another charge in the room and they helped the six, now conscious, would be victims into the grate. Hawkeye went first, followed by May, the six, Coulson and Romanov. Without having to stop and chose directions they were in the bat room in no time at all. While Coulson fended the bats off, Hawkeye and May were shepherding the six through the trapdoor and Romanov placed another charge. They made their way down the corridor to the river. Amber swung the rope back to Hawkeye. He set the first of the six across onto the other side. Realising there was going to a bit of a squeeze, Kain and Fitz put their rebreathers in their mouths and opened the door to the sulphur room. When they got to the water trap room Kain gave his rebreather to Fitz who took it back to the river edge. There were now three of the six on their side of the bank, so Fitz took Simmons and Amber's rebreathers, added them to Kains. He gave them to the three and showed them what to do. He took them across to Kain who showed them the way out up the rope.

"Wait at the top." He told them as they set off, one by one, up the rope.

Fitz went back for the last three victims and repeated the process. The third trip he made was to give Amber and Simmons their rebreathers back to them. And the rest of the team made it back to the water trap room. May closed the door and again jimmied it with a knife. Water immediately started rushing in. They had figured that this way was quicker than using the rope.

"You guys want to move up the opening, the water is going to rush in" Coulson shouted up to the six scared people hiding in the opening.]

"Yeah, just don't go outside!" Hawkeye added.

When they had reached three quarters of the way up the side Coulson pressed a button on the remote he had attached to his collarbone. In the distance they heard a loud grumbling noise.

"What did you do?" Simmons asked

"Blew up the trap." Romanov told her, using the rope to get through the opening before they lost the chance. She pulled Fitz up, then Simmons and Amber. By the time she reached for May the water level was at the lower lip of the opening. May splashed through it and reached back for a hand. She caught one and pulled at the same time Romanov did. When the two men had climbed to their feet they set off up the tunnel, Romanov and Coulson working their way to the front. They stepped out of the door to the parking lot and came face to face with two hundred Marines.

"I'm Phil Coulson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" Coulson shouted, stepping forward a few steps.

One of the Marines stepped forward.

"Agent Coulson, we've been expecting you. I'm Colonel Warrington. I understand this is your show? That was some fireworks display you put on." He said, eyeing up the team.

"That's right. We need to get these people to safety." He said, waving his hand at the six people they had rescued, before continuing "and don't underestimate my team."

"Coulson, look." May said, pointing towards the carnival. Employees were beginning to arm themselves with whatever they could get their hands on.

"Fitz, Simmons in the car. Amber, Kain, I'm going to leave the choice up to you. You can come in with us, but it will be like the Covenant Raid all over again." Coulson ordered as Hawkeye headed for higher ground and Romanov turned her spider bites back on.

"I'm in." Said Amber, checking both of her guns and grabbing a couple more magazines of ammunition.

"I'll stay here and protect Fitz, Simmons." Kain offered.

"Colonel, keep your men back, only fire if we fail."

"But there's only five of you."

"More like four and a half" Coulson retorted, eyeing up Amber, wondering if she was really ready for this.

They set off for the gate. Romanov kicked out and the flimsy padlock flew off and landed on the ground with a thwack. She headed to the left, May to the right and Amber and Coulson progressed through the middle. They could hear the Marines getting into position behind them.

The carnival employees advanced on the team. Hawkeye picked a few off with his arrows. Coulson could hear the crackle of Romanov's spider bites working furiously. He saw a guy trying to sneak up on Amber. He grabbed her by the throat, and to her credit, she knocked him out.

Then the bullet hit him in the shoulder.

"That'll teach me to get distracted in a firefight" He thought before he fired at the person who shot him.

He noticed the arrows had stopped flying and Hawkeye was in front of him, using his bow like a staff. He had run out of arrows, but he was as deadly with just the bow as he was with its counterpart.

"Oof"

Coulson turned in time to see someone take a knee to Amber's ribcage, winding her. She had progressed a lot since Ward had given in and agreed to train her, but she was getting tired. Coulson fired at the person fighting Amber (he couldn't tell if it was a man or woman). He shot them, but the bullet passed straight through and caught Amber on the arm. To her credit, she kept firing her gun and fighting.

Someone had got hold of May and was trying to pull her hair out. She twisted her body and hit him in the throat. He collapsed to the floor, struggling to breathe.

A quick survey told him more than half of their numbers were down.

Colonel Warrington tossed him a loud speaker.

"If you surrender now, you will escape unharmed. If you don't you will be met with fatal resistance."

Machine gun fire erupted around his feet.

"I'll take that as a no then shall I?" Coulson asked through the loudspeaker, before dropping it and opening fire once more. The five of them fired until there were only three people left. The team surrounded them, all five pointing their guns in more or less the same location. Right between the eyes.

"So who is behind this?" Coulson asked them.

Two of them pointed to the third, who Coulson recognised as the ride attendant from the previous night.

"You're not from the crazy bin are you?" he asked, as May fitted him with a pair of handcuffs.

"Not quite, although there are some who would still call us that."

"Who the hell are you then?"

"Us? We're S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson told him, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out to Colonel Warrington, who was stood, mouth hitting the floor, waiting for them.

Coulson led his team back to the cars and assessed their injuries. Other than a few bullet wounds that were relatively superficial they had escaped with minor cuts and bruises.


	55. Chapter 55

When Coulson and the team got back to the bus, they found Skye and Hollie waiting for them.

"Where's Ward?" Simmons asked, noticing he wasn't there to greet them.

"His blood pressure dropped so I sent him back to bed." Hollie told her.

"And he went without being forced?" Romanov asked sceptically.

"We have a few injuries that need tending to" Coulson told Hollie, wincing as he tried to move his arm.

Everyone that had been wounded was ordered by Simmons and Hollie to sit on the Lab table. Coulson, who had been shot in the shoulder; Amber, who Coulson had hit in the arm with a bullet; Hawkeye, who had caught a bullet earlier and had torn the healing wound open while fighting and was bleeding through the bandages and Romanov, who had taken a glancing blow to the forehead with a knife obeyed and sat on the table.

"I'll get us in the air." May said, heading for the door.

"Oh no you don't, May." Coulson told her, noticing the small knife sticking out of her leg.

"_I'll_ get us in the air." Fitz offered as May unwillingly took her seat on the Lab table.

Coulson and May were seen too first.

"When you have been treated I would recommend going to bed." Coulson told them.

It had been nearly two days since they had slept.

"Where's everyone going to sleep?" Romanov asked.

"You and Hawkeye together, together?"

"What? No!" she replied, earning a raised eyebrow from Coulson as she uncharacteristically blushed.

"We've talked, but we don't exactly want it to become common knowledge." Hawkeye told him.

"That's fine. I won't tell, but you and Nat can share Skye's old bunk. Everyone else is in their own bunks."

"Except you. I want you in the medical bay tonight. That bullet wound is concerning me." Hollie told him.

"You can take my bunk then. I'm sure the others will show you which one it is."

Hollie and Simmons finished tending to Coulson and May. She went to shower and check the flight plan Fitz had set up before heading off to her bunk. HE stayed to survey the others.

Hawkeye and Amber were seen to next as their wounds were reluctant to stop bleeding. They were soon stitched up and they also hit the showers before finding their way to their bunks.

That left Romanov left to be seen to. Coulson dismissed Hollie and Simmons telling them her to get some rest and turned to Romanov. He picked up the items he would need to stitch her forehead up and started work.

"You two took your time didn't you?" He asked her.

"Everything happens for a reason." Was all she said to him in response.

He was done in no time and Romanov headed for the door.

"Oh, Nat. No sex on the bus. The walls are far too thin." He said to her, earning a rare smile as she climbed the stairs outside the Lab doors as she too headed for the shower and off to bed.

Coulson headed towards the Medical Suite.

"I'm behaving. Look, see. I'm in bed being quiet and everything!" Ward told him as he entered the room.

"Calm down Ward. I don't know what Skye said to you to make you do as your told for once, but the doc has told me your having company in here tonight." Coulson responded, kicking his shoes off and climbing into the bed next to Ward's.

Simmons came in at that point carrying some clean clothes for Coulson to change into. When he had she attached various machines to him and told him if there were any problems to call her or Hollie.

"Perfect time for that talk!" Ward told him. Judging by Coulson's reaction he had completely forgotten about the train ride conversation he had had with Ward.

"Do we have to?"

"We aren't going to get another chance."

"Fine, What?"

"If you like May, you ought to do something about it."

"I don't like May, I mean I like May, just not that way."

"Oh, come on Coulson. I'm going to guess that you kept your eyes on her fighting a little longer than necessary and that's how you got shot."

"It was Amber actually."

"Oh God no!"

"Not like that. She volunteered to get stuck in with us. I was checking to see how she was coping, which, by the way, she did very well now she has been training with you."

"And your telling me that you didn't watch May at _all_?" Ward asked him propping himself up on his elbow. From his vantage point he could see the faint blush creep across Coulson's face.

"How did you know?"

"Duh! I'm not a spy for nothing!"

"Did you know she felt something for me? I mean before yesterday."

"Yeah. Credit on that goes to Skye. She was the only one that noticed it. She told me and Nat when we were sat at the bar in the Hub. It's why Nat started choking."

"What do I do?"

"I know Audrey means a lot to you, but if you won't tell her you're alive then maybe it's time to move on. Night Coulson." He finished, turning over again and settling down.

"Night Ward."

* * *

All of the people on the bus were so tired they didn't feel the plane change direction, or land.

Fury, expecting them to have fallen asleep to a movie again was surprised when he boarded the quiet plane and found no one.

He heard a noise from one of the bunks and he went to investigate. He opened the door to find Hawkeye naked except from a pair of boxers tangled in the covers on the floor and Romanov still on the bed, also naked except her underwear. They froze when they saw Fury.

"Where is everyone else?" He demanded.

"In their beds?" Romanov answered somewhat sheepishly.

Fury turned and walked away. He proceeded to wake everyone up by entering their bunks and shaking them. When he got to Coulson's bunk he was surprised to find a woman he had never seen before in his bed.

"Who are you?" Fury demanded.

"I'm Hollie. I'm the doctor they rescued."

"Why are you here?"

"They asked me to hang around. Some of them got hurt and I'm a MD so I said I'd help" Hollie was staring to become scared of this one eyed, rather large man stood in the doorway.

"Very well then. Get dressed."

And with that, Fury left to find Ward, who he knew had been hurt. Fury found Ward and to his surprise Coulson in the medical bay. It was clear they had both been ordered to spend the night there. Simmons had got dressed as soon as Fury had woken her and she was checking Coulson's back for something.

"Coulson." Fury shouted as he went through the door.

"Director."

"Ward." Fury said, nodding to Ward.

"Sir."

Fury turned his attention back to Coulson.

"I have questions. I want you to answer them."

"I will do my best, Sir."

Simmons helped Ward out of his bed and then helped him walk around the lab. His oxygen saturation and blood pressure were higher than they had been the previous day, but still a little low.

"What happened to your back?"

"Bullet, Sir."

"What's the damage?"

"It missed everything important. It's just a flesh wound, scabbed over nicely."

"The girl in your bed?"

"Hollie. Doctor. Helped us treat our wounds. Managed to keep Ward out of trouble while we infiltrated the carnival."

"Why is she here?"

"There were a number of injuries and she helped patch us all up. I think she's interested in what we do."

"Background check?"

"Skye did it. Managed to do it right in front of her without being noticed. She's clean."

"Ward?"

"He'll mend in a couple of days. After the allergic reaction, it left some slight scarring to his lungs, which the Sulphur in one of the traps aggravated."

"I want him to see medical here at the Hub."

"Yes, Sir."

"One more thing. Barton and Romanov?"

"Ask no questions, tell no lies, Sir."

"You're right. It's best I don't know."

With that Fury left Coulson to button up his shirt.


	56. Chapter 56

Skye opened the door to the Hub's medical facility. Ward was sat up in bed reading.

"Hey!" She said, meekly when she had got closer.

"Hey yourself! I was just thinking you had forgotten about me!" he teased, putting his book down.

"How could I forget you?" She asked, showing him both of her wedding bands.

"You ok?" He asked, noticing her hair and skin were duller than usual.

"I'm fine." She told him, earning a raised eyebrow. Realising that she was busted she continued "I am not the one sat in a hospital bed!"

"No. I am, at _your_ insistence. So what's wrong?"

"Tired I guess. I haven't been sleeping"

"Aww. You miss me." Ward said. Skye couldn't miss the note of sarcasm in his voice and hit him playfully on the shoulder, making Ward laugh. For the first time in two days it didn't result in a coughing fit.

"You sound better." Skye told him, taking his hand and sitting on the bed. Now that she was this close he could see the tears swimming in her eyes. She couldn't look at him.

"Skye." He almost whispered, using his free hand to cup her face and gently pulled it to look at him.

The tear slipped down her face before she could stop it. Ward wasn't overly worried about this, as fatigue always makes Skye a little weepy. He kicked her off the bed, moved over to the side with the machines and held his blanket up for Skye to crawl underneath.

Seeing the smile on Ward's face, Skye kicked her shoes off and climbed in. She rested her head on his chest and she could hear his heartbeat. It was strong and steady. She let out a sigh of relief and put her arm over him.

Seeing the door was open, Ward used his 'special skill' to close it and for good measure, lock it. After all, Director Fury had insisted, even though he and Skye were husband and wife that they refrain from being a couple while at the Hub.

The soft puffs of air coming from Skye told Ward she was fast asleep, so he picked up his book again. Carefully he found his page and started reading.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but a rattle at the door brought him out of the revere reading had caused. He heard the lock snap back and he put his book down.

The nurse that had been flirting with him since Fury had made him check in entered the room.

"Why was the door locked?" She asked him, giving him her most radiant smile.

"Thought we could use a little privacy"

"Whose we?" She asked, the smile turning into a frown. She then noticed Skye's head sticking out from underneath the blanket.

"That is against regulation." She told him, not quite hiding the jealousy in her voice.

"Why do you think I locked the door?"

"Wake her up and tell her to leave." The Nurse's tone was starting to get icy.

"No."

"I will call director Fury, and Agent Coulson."

"Fine, do it. I will tell them the same thing I'm telling you. She stays."

"You would go against direct orders from the Director?"

"Wouldn't be the first time; and besides, what is he going to do? Fire me?"

The nurse left and five minutes later Fury and Coulson entered the bay.

"The Nurse tells me you are disregarding orders." Fury said he was clearly not amused at having being dragged out of his meeting.

"I am."

"What was the order?" Coulson asked, trying to, yet again, keep Ward out of trouble.

"She wanted me to wake Skye up and kick her out. She hasn't been sleeping and she could use the rest."

It was then that Fury and Coulson saw Skye, curled up in the bed next to Ward. The nurse started checking Ward's vital statistics and all of the other information that the doctor wanted to keep an eye on. Coulson saw the smug look on her face and knew what it meant: 'he's mine'.

"The girl stays."

"She does? Why?" Fury asked, looking at Coulson.

"Same reason you gave me him back in the first place."

"I've done a lot of crazy things in the past year Coulson, you better remind me."

"My team need him." Coulson reminded him, nodding at Skye and then at the nurse as she was busy pressing buttons on the monitors.

"Your team. Of course they need him. Your right. She stays." Fury said, not realising what Coulson meant.

"But director. She can't stay!"

"Is she killing him? Making him wheeze more than he was this morning?" Fury demanded

"No, Sir. His breathing is clearing up."

"Then what's the problem?"

Fury and Coulson left the room. The nurse, temper now riled, started slamming around the bay, and was creating as much noise as possible. Ward used his special skill' to close the curtain around his bed. The nurse quickly noticed the closed curtain and headed around it and pretended to check one of the monitors connected to Ward. She was confused by the fact that Ward had literally just closed the curtain and here he was, sitting in the exact same position, reading his book, as he was before.

* * *

By the time Skye woke up it was very dark outside.

"Hey sleepy. How'd you feel?"

"What time is it?"

"Eleven"

"Eleven! I better get back to my own room"

She threw the covers off herself and sat upright. Just as she reached down for her shoes Ward grabbed her waist and pulled her back into a lying position on the bed, and threw the covers over her.

"You're not going anywhere!" he told her, settling himself into a lying position beside her.

"I need to get back to my room before anyone sees me!"

"It's a little late for that." Ward told her sleepily, putting his arm around her, taking care not to kink the oxygen tube he was attached to, and pulling her in close. They were both fast asleep in minutes.


	57. Chapter 57

It was three days before Ward was deemed fit enough to return to the team. It didn't stop them fussing over him though, which he hated.

"What can I do to get you guys to leave me alone?" He asked as Coulson attached a breath analyser to his face and ordered him onto the treadmill.

"You can stop nearly dying for a start!" Coulson replied, pressing buttons on the treadmill and getting it up to speed.

The noises coming from Ward in response sounded like a duck quacking, but Coulson understood it to mean 'I didn't nearly die, so stop worrying.'

Coulson suddenly noticed a bra hanging off the punch bag. By now they were all aware that Simons' underwear had been misplaced and it was turning up in random locations around the bus. The previous day May had found a pair of knickers in the cockpit. He punched the button for the intercom.

"Simmons, please come to the workout room." He said down it, while Ward tried to turn his head to look in the direction of the punch bag. He failed miserably due to the number of tubes he was attached to.

Simmons came into the room and noticed that Coulson was testing Ward, _again_. She immediately went over to the machines and checked everything was alright.

"Coulson, he seems fine."

"Quack, quack quack." Ward agreed.

"I know, but that isn't why I called you."

Coulson took hold of Simmons shoulders and spun her in the direction of the punch bag. She spotted her bra and, red around the face, she went to go unhook it and take it back to her bunk.

Coulson increased the speed on the treadmill so that Ward was almost sprinting. He kept Ward at this speed for the next ten minutes, before reducing the speed and checking the monitors. They results showed a healthy man who was working out. Coulson slowed the treadmill to a walk, and started taking some of the wires off Ward.

"You seem fine." He told him.

"I've been telling you that for days!"

"Your definition of fine is completely different than mine. If you were _fine_ then why did you stay in bed without complaining for as long as you did?"

"Skye."

It was clear Coulson wasn't going to get any more information than that, but he filed it away for future reference.

"You are fit to rejoin us in the field." Coulson informed him, stopping the treadmill and allowing Ward off it before removing the rest of the machinery.

"I've been telling you..." Ward started to say, but stopped when he saw the look Coulson was giving him. He decided not to finish the sentence and went to shower.

* * *

When he got to the shower room there was someone already in one of them.

"Marco?" He called.

"Polo!" Came the reply. It sounded like May.

Ward climbed into one of the free showers and turned it on.

"Ward?" He heard May's voice call to him above the noise of the shower.

"Yeah?" He replied, sticking his head around the curtain.

"What the hell did you say to Coulson?" She asked, sticking her head around her shower curtain.

"Nothing, why?" He lied.

"Because he's not as freaked out as I thought he would be. He seems calm and can actually look me in the eye."

"What else did you expect when you shouted at him that you have feelings for him? That he would kiss you like Nat did to Hawkeye?"

"No. But I kind of expected it to be a little more awkward around him."

"Go with the flow May. You never know what will happen!"

"Did they give you a personality transplant when they fixed you?"

"After everything that's happened I'm finally learning to be myself."

"I don't like it. Go back to being a psychotic killer. _Please_! Him I could handle." May begged him.

"Fine, whatever." Ward said to her, the tone of his voice changing to what Skye referred to as his 'dangerous voice'. He pulled his head back into the shower and cleaned his hair.

"That's better." May shouted, also returning her hair to the torrent of water.

**A/N: I know this is a short and odd chapter, but I am trying to figure out a couple of things within the story (and I apologise for the lack of update yesterday, but I had my niece all day so it was a little difficult to write...).**

**And I don't know if anyone has ever used a breath analyser before but they do make a duck sound as you breathe through them. I was in stitches when we put my friend on one!**


	58. Chapter 58

"Bleurgh!" Coulson gagged, spitting his coffee out and back into the mug. "Which one of you did it?" he asked, looking at Ward, Skye and Fitz.

"Did what?" Ward asked innocently.

"Filled up the sugar bowl with salt?" Coulson said, voice neutral, but looking at Ward

"I didn't do it." Ward replied defensively, while Skye laughed and Fitz picked up the offending sugar bowl and sniffed at it.

Coulson poured his coffee down the sink and went to his office. The second he had left all three of them burst out laughing. They had forgotten Coulson took sugar in his coffee, they thought it was just the interns. That is why they all swapped the sugar out for salt.

"That was genius!" Fitz said as he pretended to swap the salt out for sugar. They knew Coulson had gone to his office to watch them.

It was at that point Simmons came into the lounge and headed straight to her bunk.

"Simmons. You ok?" Fitz called after her.

"Hm, what?" She asked, sticking her head out of her bunk.

"You ok?" Fitz repeated.

"Yes. I am fine. I just found some more of my underwear hanging from the balcony in the Lab."

"Have you found it all yet?" Ward asked. Skye couldn't miss the glint in his eye.

"He knows something" She thought as Simmons replied:

"Not yet. I have one pair of knickers left to find."

She put her underwear away and went back to the lab. Ward and Fitz were playing chess and Skye was watching and very occasionally, 'helping' Fitz. They were about halfway through the game when Amber came in and made herself a drink. Kain followed her in and was about to take a seat.

"Kain. I was wondering if you would go down to the Lab and ask Simmons for a long stand?" Ward asked him.

"Sure." He left the room and went to find Simmons.

"What the hell?" Amber screamed, spitting coffee into the sink.

"What's up?" Skye asked, innocently, aiming a smile sideways to Ward.

"The coffee. It's vile! It must be off!"

"I had a cup earlier and it was fine to me!" Ward pointed out and, to prove a point, made himself a cup. "See?"

* * *

In the Lab Kain approached Simmons.

"What do you want?" She asked him. He only hovered like this when he wanted something.

"Agent Ward asked me to come and ask you for a long stand." He said bluntly. He felt like he was being punished for not fighting with the others.

"If you stand right there and don't move, I will go and get you one." She told him with a smile.

* * *

Amber poured the coffee down the sink and went to her bunk to read. Simmons came back into the lounge.

"A long stand, Ward? Seriously? You're running out of ideas aren't you?" She asked him.

"I don't get it." Skye said.

Ward turned the lab cameras onto the screen and they saw Kain stood, waiting patiently in the lab, for Simmons to return.

"The longer Simmons makes him wait, the longer the stand." Ward explained.

"Oh! I get it. That's quite funny. What else you got?"

"Oh I've got a few!"

* * *

Simmons returned to the Lab two hours later to find Kain exactly where she left him.

"I'm sorry Kain, I couldn't find one. You may want to recommend he uses a short wait." She told him.

Kain left the lab and went to find Ward. He found him playing battleship with Skye in the lounge. He was losing.

"I'm sorry Ward, Simmons said she couldn't find you a long stand. She recommended a short weight instead." He recited confused.

"No problem. I will go see if I have one." Ward told him, getting up and heading to his bunk. He made a show of searching his bunk for something before re-emerging and sitting back down opposite Skye.

"It's ok. I have a short wait. Thankyou for your help!"

"G4" Skye interrupted, indicating Kain was dismissed.

"Damn you! You cheated!"

"Say it Ward, you know you want to."

"You sank my battleship."


	59. Chapter 59

_Thwack, thud, thump._

Skye and Ward were working out in the workout room. He was holding his new pads out and Skye was hitting and kicking them for all she was worth. Occasionally he would swipe at her with the pads which Skye would have to dodge.

"I'm not saying you did it. I'm just saying you know something." She said to him, timing each word to the same time she punched the pad.

"What makes you think I know something?" Ward asked her, swiping at her and catching her shoulder with the pad.

"I saw that glint in your eye. I'm married to you. I know you."

Ward gave her his award winning, get-himself-out-of-trouble smile. Skye stopped punching.

"_YOU_? You did it. Why? Where's the last pair?" She almost whispered, stepping back from him and dropping her guard to her sides.

Ward knew the game was up.

"Yes Skye, I did it. I thought it may liven things up around here. The last pair are on ice and will reveal themselves when it is least appropriate." He admitted, swiping at her again, this time she didn't react in time and he hit her in the face.

"You couldn't have hid Amber's, or Kain's for that matter?" She demanded, taking her glove off to check her face.

It was an automatic reaction, Ward never hit her hard enough to hurt her, but the pad stung a little.

"Not nearly as funny." Was his response.

* * *

Coulson was in the kitchen making everyone tea. They had agreed when Amber and Kain joined them they needed to take it in turns to cook the evening meal and clean up the common areas. Tonight was Coulson's turn to cook. He was making Spaghetti Bolognese. One by one the team came into the lounge.

"Smells good." May told him, leaning over the pan to get a better appreciation of it. Coulson got a spoon and scooped up a small amount of Bolognese onto it. He fed it into May's mouth, not realising just how intimate the simple action would feel. He looked back to the pan.

"Tastes good too." May said, also realising that something had just happened between them. She went to sit next to Ward and Skye.

"You wanted awkward." He jibed at her.

"Shut it." She said as Ward moved to her other side, putting her between Skye and himself.

Within minutes Coulson was bringing the steaming pot out of the kitchen area and placed it on the table. He went back to the kitchen and brought in the pasta and garlic bread.

Coulson was completely oblivious to what was going on between Ward, May and Skye. Amber, Fitz and Simmons, however were not. They could see Ward and Skye conversing with May and laughing as she was looking daggers at them, but they didn't know why. Kain was still moping over the long stand incident and was not paying attention.

When they had finished their meal Fitz and Kain cleared the plates into the kitchen and as they were currently flying somewhere over Brazil, got the ice cream out of the freezer for dessert.

Fitz opened the freezer to find a pair of hot pink knickers with blue lace placed on top of the ice cream tub. He picked them up by their sides and carried the ice cold pair of pants back to the others.

"Simmons. I think I found the last pair of your pants."

She saw them, jumped over the back of the sofa and grabbed them off him. She hadn't realised they had been in the freezer and promptly dropped them. Embarrassed, she bent down to pick them up before shuffling to her bunk and tossing them inside.

She silently retook her place at the table, aware that everyone was watching her.

"So what's going on with you three?" She asked Ward, May and Skye, trying to deflect the attention off herself.

"Nothing." They replied together.

It was then Coulson realised May was sat between Ward and Skye. That was unusual. Ward and Skye always sat next to each other. He could also see that May was irritated and Skye and Ward had obviously been pushing her buttons. Then he realised: They had a clear view from where they were into the kitchen.


	60. Chapter 60

"We've caught a case. Gear up!" Coulson yelled into the lounge from his office. Everyone looked up except Ward and Amber, who were sat facing each other. He was testing her reaction time by playing 'slaps'. Her hands were bright red, his were not even blotched.

"Where are we heading?" May asked, grabbing the flight control pad from the side.

"Topeka, Kansas."

Amber looked at Coulson. She was from Kansas, so at least she might be helpful for a change. It was a big mistake. Ward launched at her hands and Coulson could feel the sting from his balcony.

"What happened?" Fitz asked.

"A room full of people burned to death."

"That isn't what we investigate." Kain said.

"The room was untouched by flames." Coulson added, perking their curiosity.

"Mass Spontaneous Human Combustion?" Simmons asked.

"Flight planned, landing in Topeka Regional Airport in two hours."

"Best get ready for action."

* * *

The team arrived in Topeka and climbed into their Jeeps. Coulson, Fitz, Simmons and Kain were in one. May, Ward, Skye and Amber were in the other.

"I think you should make a move" Ward baited May in the front seat as they followed the car Coulson was driving.

"I'll make a move in a minute. _You_ right out the door!"

"He has a valid point." Skye pointed out from the back.

"Skye's right, he does." Amber added.

May stomped on the brakes, halting the car.

"I am not going to make a move on Coulson. He doesn't like me in that way so I am not going to make a fool of myself. Are we clear?" She almost shouted at them, face colouring.

"Then _what _exactly happened in the kitchen the other night?" Ward whispered to May loud enough so the only other person that could hear was Skye.

May shifted the car back into Drive and headed off towards their destination.

She was pointedly not looking, or rising to Ward's bait any more. But he made her think. What did exactly happen between them the other night?

* * *

"May's stopped the car." Simmons told Coulson as she peered out of the back of theirs.

"What?" Fitz asked, confused.

"Why would she do that?" Kain asked.

Coulson smirked to himself, knowing the reason why May had stopped the car.

"Ward is clearly baiting her and she's rising to it. She's stopped the car to threaten him."

"What's she gonna threaten him with?" Kain asked.

"Probably threatening him with physical violence." Fitz told him.

"She hasn't done that since she realised he _let_ her win all of their fights."

"She's threatened to kick him out of the car." Coulson told them, his tone indicating they should perhaps change the topic. He realised then that Ward was right. He had been paying a lot of attention to May. He just didn't realise it.

They got to their destination and climbed out, waiting for May to catch up. She did within minutes and the rest of the team climbed out of the car. Ward was gently rubbing a spot on his right arm and May one on her left. Clearly his predictions had been right, Ward had been baiting her.

They all got the equipment out of the cars and Ward and Skye opened the doors to their scene. It looked like a grand dining room, except there were piles of ash everywhere,and nothing else had been touched. Skye's hand flew to her mouth to try and keep her breakfast down. Even Ward had turned a little green at the distinct scent of burnt flesh. They filed into the building and started working.

Fitz and Simmons were flying the dwarves around the room scanning all of the piles of ash, the measurements of the room, the locations of all of the furniture, etc. Coulson and May were talking to the people who found the remains and Ward and Skye were attempting to hack into the building's security cameras. Amber and Kain had gone to ask for them manually at the security reception for them.

Coulson looked at Ward and Skye in time to see Skye turn green and run from the room. They had found what they were looking for and it didn't look good.

He saw Ward straighten up from Skye's laptop, look around the room to get his bearings and traipse slowly over to one side of the room. Curious, Coulson followed him. He saw Ward drop to his hands and knees and look under the dresser that was against the wall. He sat back up, looked around, grabbed an ornamental sword off the wall and returned to the dresser. He swiped the sword under the dresser a couple of times and just as Coulson reached his side a small object that looked like a circular cage rolled out from under it. The middle was empty.


	61. Chapter 61

"Ward, May. Why don't you both go outside and get some air?" Coulson asked them. They had been in the room working for the best part of three hours helping sift through the remains.

They were holding up the best out of his team. Amber and Kain had lasted all of twelve minutes before making excuses and disappearing to get any video footage they needed. They so far hadn't returned. The remains themselves didn't seem to faze Skye too much, she had, like them, seen more peculiar things. Watching the video feedback had sent Skye running out of the room, hand covering her mouth. The smell had got to Coulson and he was forced to remove himself from the room and rub smelling salts under his nose. When he felt like he could breathe properly again, he went round and rubbed the salt under everyone's noses. Simmons ran from the room crying when she found two wedding bands and a pendant reading 'No. 1 Daughter' in a particularly large pile of ash. Fitz had turned green when he analysed the results from the Dwarves.

The item Ward had found had been packaged up and added to the collection of stuff to go back to the bus.

Ward and May put their tools down and headed for the door, quickly followed by a still green looking Skye.

They opened the doors and went out onto the street, propping themselves up on the railing separating the pavement from the road. May looked out onto the road and Ward looked back at the building. He saw Skye follow them and opened his arms out and let her into his embrace.

"That is..." May started.

"I know." Ward cut her off, words mumbled as he pressed his face into Skye's hair.

"What the hell could have caused only humans to burn but not anything else?" May continued. Ward and Skye both knew she was bothered by it. She only asks questions like this when she's bothered by something.

"I'm not sure, May. I'm really not." Ward told her confused.

May looked sideways at him and Skye lifted her head off his chest to look at him.

"What do you know?"

"While I was at Sci Acc I read this paper. It was completely theoretical at the time."

"And?" May prodded.

"It had something to do with exciting water molecules to create energy."

"Energy wouldn't cause people to burn and turn to ash."

"It might if the water were excited enough." Ward replied, turning a little green at the thought.

* * *

Hours later they had collected all of the data they needed and headed back to the bus to analyse it. Ward was seen talking on his phone, which was unusual, Skye was sat in front of him researching his theory and trying to find the paper he had read, May was reading her book, knowing that she couldn't help anyone. Kain and Amber were helping Fitz and Simmons in the lab.

They tested everything from samples of ash to the object Ward had found.

Nothing.

"Any progress?" Coulson asked, entering the room, looking at the magnification of the circular object on the holotable.

"No. There isn't a trace of accelerant anywhere." Simmons snapped at him, putting her lab glasses on the side, sitting down and rubbing her eyes.

"There isn't any trace of anything." Fitz added, trying to explain their frustration.

Ward, Skye and May came into the lab at that point.

"We have a theory." Ward announced. Everyone who hadn't heard the theory groaned. They never like Ward's theories. It usually led to trouble.

"Well, Ward has a theory; Skye has just found the research it was based on." May told them. The groan got louder.

"Go on." Coulson said with a sigh.

"I'm guessing you haven't found a trace of any accelerant or even a source of ignition."

"No, but I'm sure you will tell us your theory." Fitz said. He didn't like to be shown up by Ward, who had a Phys Acc background as opposed to himself who had a Sci Acc one.

"Hyper excited water molecules." Skye burst out, spinning her laptop round to show everyone the article Ward had read.

"I read the article when I was transferred and I recognised that object. I didn't know where from and then while I was outside I remembered where I had seen it. In that article." Ward told them, seeing the look on the scientist's faces, pointing at the screen.

"I understood the basics but the rest of it went way over my head. Maybe you two could figure it out?" He continued.

Fitz took the laptop off Skye and started to read. The rest of the team watched him as his eyes flickered over the page. HE finished reading and passed the laptop to Simmons, who did the same.

"It's a theory, but while there is no evidence of it, there isn't any to back it up either." Simmons pointed out.

She and Fitz looked at each other. They were sceptical. They had never heard of this theory, but it was their only shot.

"We'd need a theoretical physicist to help." Fitz told Coulson.

"I don't know any." He admitted.

"Oh, but we do." Simmons said, looking at Ward who was smiling.

"She's packed and waiting for us at Phys Acc."


	62. Chapter 62

Ward, Skye, May and Amber were in the Atrium looking for their new 'bus guest. They saw door of the corridor leading to the Arena burst open and a young blonde came flying out of it, closely followed by six security guards. They were firing their guns at her. Ward wasn't worried, he knew those guns were only loaded with neuro-toxin darts. They watched as she used bars and pillars to swing around and dodge the darts. They saw her pull off a move that Ward himself had used once or twice.

She rugby tackled a pillar, but instead of hurting herself she used her momentum and the position of her arms to spin around the pillar before using her feet to kick the nearest guard in the stomach. She picked up his gun and shot the remaining five. Once all of the guards were incapacitated she spotted Ward and walked over to him.

"So why are you back here?" Ward asked, looking around the Atrium to see if anything had changed.

"I don't think Director Fury appreciated me accidentally shooting someone called Maria? At least, I think that was her name." Tilly answered, going a little red.

Ward looked sideways at his sister, eyebrows raised, a smile playing at his lips. He could hear snorts of laughter from Skye and Amber behind him. May's only reaction was in her eyes.

"You shot Maria Hill?" He asked her, stifling a laugh. Only Tilly could 'accidentally' shoot someone as important as her.

"Yeah, about this tall (she held her hand up to an approximate height), shoulder length dark hair. _Hates_ you... Why does she hate you Grant?"

"We, Well she... It's a long story."

"That usually means that you just don't want to tell me." It was Ward's turn to blush.

Tilly turned to Skye and gave her a hug. She caught Skye in the ribs with the gun she was still holding. Ward took it off her before she 'accidentally' shot someone else.

"So, theoretical physics of the hyperthermal variety?" she asked Ward, who was picking up her bag.

"Not here." He replied, putting his arm around her and leading her to the door. The others followed. Skye saw Tilly put her hand into the back pocket of Ward's jeans and pull out what she recognised to be his flick knife. Or was it hers. She couldn't remember.

They made it back to the bus without much of an incident. They went up into the lounge and prepared to belt in while May took off. Tilly had taken her bag off Ward and was depositing it Skye's old bunk. She peeked out of the window. Most of the students who had a free were curiously watching the plane. Her phone rang. It was Harvey. She ignored the call. Since that incident with Ward, Harvey had been really nice to her and calling her non-stop. It was starting to annoy her. She had seen his true colours and had not liked them. She went back out into the lounge and took her seat.

Before long May entered the lounge.

"Cruising at 50,000 feet." She told them. They all removed their seat belts and started stretching their legs.

"So, Theoretical Physics? What do you need to know from me that these two can't figure out?" Tilly asked, nodding at Fitz and Simmons.

"The theoretical principle in question may not be theoretical anymore." Simmons answered.

"Before we start, who is Maria Hill?"

"Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Why do you ask?" Coulson told her.

"No reason." Tilly answered, looking at the floor.


End file.
